The occurrence and time course of capacitation, acrosomal loss, and hyperactivated motility require quantitative definition in order to characterize fertile human sperm. Recently the method has been developed to estimate the quality of
spermatozoa
by
using kinematic parameters such as curvilinear velocity (VCL), average path velocity (VAP), linearity (LIN), straightness (STR), amplitude of lateral head displacement (ALH), and beat cross frequence (BCF) from Computer Assisted Sperm Analysis
(CASA).
In this study, using the Hamilton Thorn motility analyzer HTM 2030 (Hamilton Thorn Research, Beverly, MA), we attempted to identify the spermatozoa with hyperactivated motility (HA) objectively and to monitor hyperactivation of human spermatozoa
during
incubation in capacitating media and after treatment of calcium ionophore as compared with acrosome status. And we examined whether HA are related to the result of SPA.
Semen samples obtained from 16 healthy men were prepared by swim up technique and preincubated in a capacitating media (modified BWW medium) for 5 hours and treated with calcium ionophore solution. The acrosome reaction was detected with PSA-FITC
labelling of the acrosome and in vitro sperm ferilizing capacity was assessed by the zona free hamster ovum penetration assay (SPA).
The incidence of hyperactivated sperm was 2.6% in fresh semen, 14.3% of the swim up population. 13.7% after 5h of incubation. Significant increase of percentage of hyperactivated sperm was observed after the incubation (p<0.05) but after
treatment,
no
significant changes of percentage of hyperactivated sperm (11.8%) in contrast to significant rise in the percentage of acrosome reacted cells. Correlation analysis failed to show any significant relationship between the percentage of sperm with
HA
and
SPA score.
In conclusion, although no direct correlations were found between the results of SPA and HA, hyperactivation of sperm is associated with capacitation and monitoring hyperactivated sperm will be expected as a method of evaluating the functional
quality
of sperm such as SPA.
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