Testing the fertilizing ability of motile spermatozoa separated by Percoll in patients with abnormal sperm analysis or sperm penetration.

The Percoll density-gradient technique was used to select motile sperm from men who exhibited abnormal semen analysis or unexplained infertility. The fertilizing ability of the spermatozoa was evaluated by the hamster ova sperm penetration assay (SPA). The current work is a novel approach in the usage of Percoll in an attempt to improve the quality of the sperm of nonfertile patients and to examine its results by SPA. The method succeeded in improving the penetration score of the fertile controls by 15% to 30%. However, no improvement of the low penetration score of the nonfertile patients was demonstrable. The difficulties inherent in using the Percoll density gradient technique are discussed.