Antisperm Antibodies Bind With Different Patterns to Sperm of Different Men

Abstract Immunologic infertility is an important area of current clinical research. The immunobead test is a laboratory method that identifies the classes of antisperm antibodies and their binding sites on the sperm surface. In this study we have investigated the variability in the pattern of antibody binding to spermatozoa after passive transfer from blood serum. Serum from a single donor containing antisperm antibodies of the IgG class was used in all experiments. The spermatozoa from 27 semen donors were found to differ significantly in the degree and location of immunobead binding after exposure to this serum. There was substantial day-to-day variability in the results for individual semen donors and the overall variability in test results was significantly greater when a number of semen donors was used rather than a single donor. These data suggest that details of antisperm antibody binding after passive transfer from body fluids may depend on the sperm donor. The design of research studies involving antibody transfer must take this source of variability into account.