1996 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

Measurement of Progesterone binding rate of the human sperm for the assessment of fertilization

Research Project

Project/Area Number	07671793
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Obstetrics and gynecology
Research Institution	Ehime University School of Medicine
Principal Investigator	YANO Jori Ehime Univ., School of Medicine associated Professor, 医学部, 助教授 (90182386)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	YAMANAKA Kenji Ehime Univ., School of Medicine instractor, 医学部・付属病院, 助手 (10263930) TANIGUCHI Fumiaki Ehime Univ., School of Medicine instractor, 医学部, 助手 (80263929)
Project Period (FY)	1995 – 1996
Keywords	calcium / flowcytometry / progesterone / sperm / infertility / in-vitro fertilization / microinsemination / acrozone reaction
Research Abstract	To investigate the effect of progesterone on the human sperm function and establish a new sperm function test, progesterone binding rates of motile human sperm obtained from normal and infertile donor were measured with FITC labeled-BSA conjugated progesterone using flowcytometry. Results were as follows. 1.Two types of fluorescence patterns (whole sperm head or equatorial segment) were monitored by fluorescence microscopy. 2.The level of progesterone binding rate (%PB) of sperm from normal donor was around 30%. 3.The level of %PB of sperm from infertile donor (asthenozoospermia) was significantly lower than that from normal donor. 4.Positive correlation was observed between %PB and acrozome reaction rate measured by lectin binding assay, but not between %PB and total sperm number or sperm motility rate. 5.Progesterone receptor antagonist (RU38486) suppressed %PB in a dose dependent manner. 6.Positive correlation was observed between %PB and in vitro fertilization rate, and significantly low fertilization rate was obtained when %PB was below 15%. 7.High fertilization rate was obtained by intracytoplasmic insemination method even with the low %PB sperm. From these results, measurement of %PB of sperm appeared to be a new useful method to assess sperm function, especially fertilizability of sperm.