Adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) activity in normal and pathological human semen. Relationship with round cells of the ejaculate.

The aim of the present paper is deleted to determine ATP activity in the human seminal cells by bioluminescence and to investigate the relationship between these values and the number of round cells either peroxidase positive or peroxidase negative. We studied 244 untreated men, divided into six groups. Our mean value of ATP activity in normal semen was 20.02 +/- 0.65 n moles per 10(8) spermatozoa. In asthenozoospermic or oligoasthenozoospermic patients with less than 1,000,000 round cells per ml, the concentration of ATP was significantly lower than normal (P less than 0.001) or (P less than 0.05). Semen with normal characteristics or samples from asthenozoospermic or oligoasthenozoospermic patients but with more than 1,000,000 round cells, per ml and with predominance of peroxidase negative cells, had an ATP concentration higher than normal subjects (P less than 0.001). We believe that the knowledge of the quantity and quality of round cells of the ejaculate is important to interpret the seminal values of ATP.