Toward the development of biochemical probes for the assessment of sperm function we have measured the activities of sperm creatine-N-phosphotransferase (CPK). There was a highly significant inverse correlation (P less than 0.001 in all comparisons) between sperm CPK activities and sperm concentrations in specimens of normospermic and oligospermic men with greater than 30 million sperm/ml (0.106 +/- 0.01 SEM, N = 90, expressed as CPK U/100 million sperm), 20-30 million sperm/ml (0.333 +/- 0.07 SEM, N = 30) and 10-20 million sperm/ml (0.583 +/- 0.12 SEM, N = 30) when compared with the CPK values of the less than 10 million/ml specimens (2.242 +/- 0.46 SEM, N = 30). Furthermore, the distribution of CPK activities within these four groups showed that 96%, 67%, 43%, and 4% of the samples, respectively, were in the less than 0.250 CPK U/100 million sperm normal range (mean + 2 SD of the greater than 30 million sperm/ml group). However, there was no relationship between sperm CPK activities and the values of sperm motility (P greater than 0.15) or morphology (P = 0.38) in the samples. The migrated sperm fractions (significantly improved in motility and velocity parameters) showed CPK activities lower than the initial semen specimens (P less than 0.01, N = 150). In fact, in some oligospermic men the CPK activities of the migrated sperm fractions were within the range of normospermic samples.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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We have found a significant inverse correlation between sperm concentrations and sperm creatine N-phosphotransferase (CPK) activities in oligospermic and normospermic human specimens. In the present work, we carried out serial CPK determinations to assess whether there is a relationship between fluctuating sperm concentrations and sperm quality in consistently oligospermic and variablespermic (sperm concentrations are occasionally in the greater than 20 million/ml range) husbands of 65 couples (23 normospermic men/51 samples, 25 consistently oligospermic men/80 samples, and 17 variablespermic men/68 samples). The sperm CPK activities were significantly lower in the normospermic vs. the oligospermic or variablespermic groups (p less than 0.001), but there were no differences between the latter two (p greater than 0.25). The mean CPK values of migrated sperm fractions in both the oligospermic and variablespermic populations were improved (at least 20% decline in CPK values) compared to those of the initial specimens (1.27 +/- 0.38 vs. 0.68 +/- 0.37 and 0.77 +/- 0.32 vs. 0.46 +/- 0.24 SEM U/100 million sperm, respectively, p less than 0.001 in both pairs) and the incidence of the "failed-to-improve" samples was also similar in the two groups (44/36 vs. 45/23, p greater than 0.2). The lack of differences in the mean CPK activities, in the distribution of CPK values under and over 0.250 U/100 million sperm level, and in the ratio of migrated samples with improved or with failed-to-improve CPK activities suggests that sperm quality is not different between men who are consistently oligospermic and those who occasionally produce normospermic specimens.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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