Reproductive immunology: 4. The effect of seminal plasma from immunologic infertile men on in vitro lymphocyte cultures.

The seminal plasma of 31 patients were examined for the presence of sperm antibodies and for inhibitory properties on the transformation rates of donor lymphocytes cultured in vitro. Twenty five (80%) of the men revealed apart from fertile semen, no sperm antibody activities while six (20%) patients showed high spermagglutinating antibody titres in their seminal plasma and blood serum. Following the routine semen analyses and sperm antibody estimations the seminal plasma were used in lymphocyte transformation studies in order to examine their inhibitory effect. The influence of the seminal plasmas on the lymphocytes were expressed as a percentage inhibition. The percentage inhibition of the normozoospermic men differed significantly from the immunologic infertile man (p less than 0,05). We concluded from the study that the inhibitory potential of the seminal plasma from immunologic infertile male with a normal sperm count are elevated compared with that of normozoospermic men without sperm antibodies. It also appears as if the sperm antibodies in the seminal fluid are able to bind with the inhibitory factor thus causing an enhanced inhibition effect on the lymphocytes.