Antisperm antibodies: their effect on the process of fertilization studied in vitro.

The influence of antisperm antibodies on the fertilizing capacity of human sperm was investigated in a zone-free hamster egg system using heterologous and homologous antisera. The ability of these antisera to interfere with the fertilizing capacity of human spermatozoa correlated well with the antibody titers obtained using the Franklin-Dukes tube slide test. However, there was little correlation between the antifertility effects of these antisera and their activities in the gelatin and tray agglutination tests. The addition of complement to the incubation medium amplified the inhibitory activity exhibited by these antisera, although the extent of this inhibitory influence bore no relationship to the antibody titers obtained using the complement-dependent sperm-immobilization technique. The study demonstrates the importance of the hamster egg penetration test in evaluating the antifertility effect of antisperm antibodies.