ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the effect of sperm acrosin activity on the IVF-ET outcome.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We analyzed sperm parameters, morphology and acrosin activity for 909 infertile husbands by computer-assisted self-assessment (CASA), modified Papanicolaou staining and N-alpha-benzoyl-DL-arginine-p-nitroanilide (BAPNA), respectively, and detected the rates of fertilization, cleavage, quality embryos, embryo cryopreservation, implantation, clinical pregnancy and abortion. The wives were identified as normal or with mere oviduct problems.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The rate of normal sperm morphology and sperm motility, vitality, rapid progressive velocity and concentration were significantly lower in the abnormal acrosin activity group than in the normal one (P < 0.01). Significant positive correlations were observed between acrosin activity and the above-mentioned semen parameters (P < 0.01). There were no significant differences in the number of retrieved eggs, the rates of cleavage, quality embryos, embryo cryopreservation, non-embryo transfer cycles and miscarriages, and the number of transferred embryos between the two groups (P > 0.05). The fertilization rate, the percentage of transfer cycles with only 1 embryo and the rate of implantation and clinical pregnancy were notably higher in the normal acrosin activity group than in the abnormal one (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Sperm acrosin activity is closely related with semen parameters, and it helps to predict the sperm fertilizing capacity and IVF-ET outcome.</p>