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Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on April 7, 2005
Human Reproduction 2005 20(8):2271-2278; doi:10.1093/humrep/dei013
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions{at}oupjournals.org

Clinical adaptation of the sperm ubuquitin tag immunoassay (SUTI): relationship of sperm ubiquitylation with sperm quality in gradient-purified semen samples from 93 men from a general infertility clinic population

Christophe Ozanon1, Jacques Chouteau2 and Peter Sutovsky3,4

1 Fertility-Assisted Medical Center, Laboratoire Unilab, Clinique Monplaisir, 8–10 avenue Frères Lumière, 69008 Lyon, 2 Assistance Medical Center Grenoble-Belledonne, 83 avenue Gabriel Peri, 38400 St Martin d'Heres, France and 3 University of Missouri-Columbia, S141 ASRC, 920 East Campus Drive, Columbia, MO 65211-5300, USA

4 To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: sutovskyp{at}missouri.edu

BACKGROUND: The proteolytic chaperone peptide ubiquitin accumulates in defective human spermatozoa. Immunodetection of ubiquitin in human sperm samples correlates with semen quality and male fertility. METHODS: Semen samples from 93 men from couples seeking infertility treatment were separated on a PureSperm density gradient and screened by immunofluorescence microscopy with anti-ubiquitin antibodies. The percentage of spermatozoa with head ubiquitylation was recorded and compared with clinical semen evaluation and embryo development data after IVF or ICSI. Subjects were divided into the following four groups based on the initial clinical diagnosis of the couples; group 1, male factor; group 2, idiopathic infertility; group 3, female infertility with neither partner having children previously; and group 4, female infertility with male partners having children from previous relationships. RESULTS: The percentage of sperm with ubiquitylated heads remaining after PureSperm separation in the respective groups was 4.0% (male factor), 2.5% (idiopathic infertility), 0.7% (female infertility and presumed fertile male) and 0.9% (female infertility with established fertile male). Negative correlations between sperm ubiquitin and several parameters reflective of embryo development after assisted fertilization were found within the male factor group. CONCLUSIONS: Use of this simplified ubiquitin-based sperm quality assay is feasible in a clinical environment. Since the gradient separation does not completely deplete the defective spermatozoa, the modified light microscopic sperm ubiquitin tag immunoassay could add a new level of stringency to the selection of human spermatozoa for ICSI.

Key words: andrology/infertility/male factor/sperm/ubiquitin


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