Evaluation of Anti sperm Antibodies in Relevance to Progesterone Levels in Serum and Seminal Plasma in Infertile Men

Background: Anti-sperm antibody (ASA) and hormonal oscillation have been considered as two systems in close association that affect each other. ASA influence the capability of insemination of spermatozoa. In addition, ASA is present in approximately 10% of infertile male patients and can cause infertility. Progesterone is a steroid hormone known to control lymphocyte proliferation during cytokine action and contributes to humoral immune responses by formation of antibody. Objectives: To study relationship between ASA positive or negative with level of progesterone in both serum and seminal plasma accordingly to sperm function parameters in different groups of infertile patients. Patients, Materials and Methods: The study consists of 80 volunteers, 20 of whom are normozoospermic, 20 Asthenozoospermic, 20 Oligozoospermic, and 20 Azoospermic subjects. The anti-sperm antibody and progesterone hormone were measured in both serum and seminal plasma by using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Results: The study showed (12.5%) out of 80 volunteers with positive ASA in all groups. The result was considered positive if the ratio was >= 60 RU/ml. On these bases and screening criteria, the positive ASA group showed the association with the high levels of progesterone in both types of the samples (serum and seminal plasma). These results exhibited a highly significant difference when compared with negative ASA group; ASA positive and ASA negative groups in sperm function parameters were not significantly different. Conclusion: Determination of the relevance of the levels of progesterone and anti-sperm antibodies in the serum and seminal plasma, which in turn is important to determine the type of infertility especially the immunological type.