Value of sperm acrosin activity detection in selecting the method of assisted reproduction for patients with unexplained infertility / 中华男科学杂志

Objective@#To investigate the clinical significance of sperm acrosin activity detection in selecting the method of assisted reproduction for patients with unexplained infertility (UI).@*METHODS@#This retrospective study included 49 UI couples treated by IVFET (49 cycles) after three failures in intrauterine insemination (IUI) and another 95 couples with uterine tube obstruction (UTO) treated by IVF (131 cycles). We analyzed the laboratory data, clinical outcomes and sperm acrosin activity in the two groups of patients. According to the level of sperm acrosin activity of the males, we further divided the UI patients into two subgroups, a 0.05). The sperm acrosin activity was remarkably lower in the UI than in the UTO patients (36.03 vs 61.98 IU/106, P < 0.01), and so was the fertilization rate in the < 36 IU/106 than in the ≥36 IU/106 sperm subgroup (47.7% vs 80.3%, P < 0.01).@*CONCLUSIONS@#The low fertilization rate caused by decreased sperm acrosin activity may be the main cause of infertility and the potential factor of UI. When sperm acrosin activity is < 36 IU/106 sperm, IVF plus shortterm fertilization by remedial ICSI should be preferred to IUI.

Study on relationship between sperm morphology with seminal plasma zinc and sperm acrosin activity in male infertile patients / 国际检验医学杂志

Objective To investigate the relationship of sperm morphology with seminal plasma zinc and sperm acrosin activity in male infertile patients.Methods 455 patients with male infertility were divided into 5 groups and 8 groups according to age and sperm morphology respectively.The sperm morphology,seminal plasma zinc and sperm acrosin activity were detected by the Diff-Quik stain,modified 5-Br-PAPS and modified Kennedy methods respectively.Results The percentages of morphologically normal sperm and seminal plasma zinc concentration in the infertile men groups were not different in various age groups(P >0.05 ).The sperm acrosin activity in the age group of 36-50 years was remarkably decreased (P 0.05).Seminal plasma zinc concentration in the infertile men groups were not different in the 8 groups (P >0.05 ).Sperm acrosin activity was decreased with the percentage decrease of morphologically normal sperm (r =0.93,P <0.01).Conclusion The percentage of morphologically normal sperm is not affectd by the age and the seminal plasma zinc,which is positively correlated with the sperm acrosin activity.

Impact of hepatitis B virus infection on semen parameters and sperm function / 中华传染病杂志

Objective To investigate the impact of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection on semen parameters,sperm DNA integrity,acrosin activity and sperm-nucleoprotein transition.Methods Semen samples from 527 subjects including 273 hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive and 254 HBsAg negative,who sought medical attention and received in-vitro feritilization in reproductive medicine center of First Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University from Jan 2011 to Oct 2012 were collected.Semen parameters,sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI),sperm-nucleoprotein transition and acrosin activity of both HBsAg-positive and HBsAg-negative subjects were analyzed.Results Semen parameters of both groups were within the normal range,but sperm concentration and percentage of forward moving sperms of HBsAg positive group were significantly lower than those of HBsAg negative group (P=0.000),while percentage of static sperms of HBsAg positive group were significantly higher than that of HBsAg negative group (P =0.000).DFI in HBsAg positive and negative group were (17.85 ± 0.70) ％ and (11.85 ± 0.50) ％,respectively,which was significantly different (t=6.951,P=0.000).Percentage of sperms with normal morphology in both groups were within the normal range,but sperms with neck and tail deformity in the HBsAg positive group was significantly higer than those in HBsAg negative group (all P＜0.05).Acrosin activity of sperms in HBsAg positive group was significantly lower than that in HBsAg negative group (t=3.756,P=0.000).Linear regression analysis indicated that serum HBsAg level was reversely correlated with sperm concentration (r=-0.140,P =0.021),but positively correlated to DFI (r =0.151,P =0.014).Conclusions HBV infection not only affects the routine semen parameters and sperm morphology,but also compromises sperm function including impaired DFI and acrosin activity.However,the impact of anti-HBV agents on sperm quality and male fertility requires further research.

The relationship between the sperm quality and fertilization outcome after short-time insemination / 中华检验医学杂志

ObjectiveTo evaluate the predictive value of the sperm quality to fertilization outcomes after short-time insemination.MethodsA total of 558 cycles of short-time insemination in the Reproductive Medical Center of Henan Provincial People's Hospital during January 2009 to June 2010 excluding patients aged ＞ 38 years and M Ⅱ oocyte number ＜ 3 were analyzed retrospectively.According to whether undergo rescue intracytoplasmic sperm injection( Re-ICSI),all cycles were divided into in vitro fertilization (IVF)group (472 cycles) and rescue intracytoplasmic sperm injection (Re-ICSI) group (86 cycles).Both IVFgroup and Re-ICSI group were subdivided into primary infertility and secondary infertility according to previous history of pregnancy.269 primary infertility cycles and 203 secondary infertility cycles were characterized in IVF group; and 64 primary infertility cycles and 22 secondary infertility cycles were characterized in Re-ICSI group.x2 test was applied for comparison of embryo plant rate,clinical pregnancy rate,early miscarriage rate between IVF and Re-ICSI groups,while Fisher test was used for comparison of live birth rate.and Mann-Whitney U test was utilized for comparison of duration of infertility,forward moving sperm counts,abnormal sperm rate,sperm acrosin activity between IVF and Re-ICSI groups.ResultsThe embryo plant rate,clinical pregnancy rate,early miscarriage rate,live birth rate of IVF group were:29.4％,44.9％,13.4％,37.0％ respectively; the above indicators in Re-ICSI group were:25.7％,34.6％,10.7％,29.6％ respectively,the differences of the indicators between the two groups had no statisticalsigmficance (x2 =0.869,2.963,0.010,P =0.351,0.085,0.922,0.098).Median of duration of infertility,forward moving sperm counts,abnormal sperm rate,sperm acrosin activity of primary infertility cycles in IVF group were:4.00(3.00 -6.00) years,58.37(33.64 - 102.27) × 106,81.09％ (79.41％ -88.69％ ),76.30 (48.50 - 92.46 ) μIU/106 sperm respectively ; in Re-ICSI group were:5.00 ( 3.25 -8.00) years,36.33 (20.59 -64.43 ) × 106,85.5％ (81.28％ - 89.02％ ),47.14( 31.61 -90.24) μIU/106 sperm respectively,the differences of them between the two groups had statistical significance (Z =-2.617, -3.505, -3.553, -3.530,P =0.009,0.000,0.000,0.000).Median of duration of infertility,forward moving sperm counts,abnormal sperm rate,sperm acrosin activity of secondary infertility cycles in IVF group were:5.00 (3.00 -7.00) years,63.00 (34.20 - 107.73 ) × 106,81.29％ (79.90 -86.09) ％,78.34 ( 53.87 - 98.00) μIU/106 sperm respectively,in Re-ICSI group were:5.00 ( 3.75 -7.00) years,28.80 ( 18.57 - 48.56 ) × 106,88.79％ ( 84.04 - 95.64 ) ％,54.70 ( 39.73 - 76.77 ) μIU/106 sperm respectively,the differences of them between the two groups showed statistical significance except duration of infertility (Z =- 0.338,- 3.505,- 3.553,- 3.530,P =0.735,0.000,0.000,0.006).ConclusionThe duration of infertility,forward moving sperm counts,abnormal sperm rate,sperm acrosin activity have predictive value of fertilization outcomes after short-time insemination.

Acrosin release and acrosin activity during incubation in capacitating media using fresh and frozen-thawed dog sperm

We evaluated the effect of time and temperature on acrosin release from the acrosomal cap and the activity of this enzyme during in vitro capacitation in fresh and frozen/thawed dog sperm. Sperm-rich fractions of six ejaculates from three dogs were processed as fresh and frozen samples. Each sperm sample was incubated in canine capacitation medium (CCM) for 0, 1, 2 and 3 h at 20°C and at 37°C. After incubation, the samples were assessed by the indirect immunofluorescent staining technique. The probability of having unlabeled sperm (PUS), indicating acrosin loss, was modelled by a binomial distribution using logistic regression. There was a linear relationship between PUS and time at both temperatures (p<0.001); however, a major percentage of unlabeled sperm was observed in frozen/thawed samples soon after incubation, indicating that the release of acrosin was affected by capacitation time, mainly in frozen samples. Temperature influenced acrosin release only in cryopreserved sperm (p<0.05). Acrosin activity was measured by digestion halos on slides coated with gelatin-substrate film during each time period; a significant increase in the number of large halos was observed in fresh samples throughout the experiment, whereas frozen/thawed sperm showed a decreased rate of halo diameters during culture. Thus, there appears to differences between fresh and frozen dog sperm in terms of acrosin release and the level of acrosin activity in the course of in vitro capacitation.

Protease activity involvement in the passage of mammalian sperm through the zona pellucida

The interaction between acrosome-reacted sperm and zona pellucida proteins is not yet fully understood. Serine protease acrosin and its zymogen proacrosin have been proposed to fulfill this function due to their capacity to bind zona pellucida glycoproteins. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this interaction has been merely speculative. Here we show that fucoidan (a sulfated polysaccharide) and solubilized zona pellucida glycoproteins, but not soybean trypsin inhibitor, are able to detach bound spermatozoa, which suggests that live sperm binds to the zona pellucida in a non-enzymatical way. Interestingly, mild proteolytic digestion with acrosin or trypsin does not modify the structure of the zona pellucida, but rather results in fewer spermatozoa binding to the zona. These results agree with a model where the active site of acrosin digests the zona pellucida and binds through the polysulfate-binding domain through a three-dimensional zona structure rather than a single ligand.