Clinical Application of a New Stain to Detect Acrosome-Reacted Sperm for Predicting Polyspermic Fertilization in IVF-ET

Human sperm acrosome function assays are predictive of fertilization rate in vitro: a retrospective cohort study and meta-analysis

“…Of the 44 selected articles, 16 articles [ 3 , 4 , 6 – 9 , 16 , 18 , 19 , 50 , 51 , 53 – 57 ] addressed the relationship between the AE levels and FR (Table 2 ); one described three AE assay methods [ 3 ]; another reported three sperm preparation methods [ 54 ]; and three also mentioned different preparation methods [ 4 , 7 , 9 ] for a total of 23 total datasets extracted from these 16 articles, comprising 2734 infertile couples undergoing IVF therapy. A total of 13 articles [ 22 , 29 , 33 , 36 , 37 , 39 – 42 , 44 , 47 , 63 , 64 ] addressed the relationship between the spontaneous AR% and FR (Table 3 ); one described two AR assay methods [ 37 ] for a total of 14 total datasets extracted from these articles, comprising 791 infertile couples. A total of 23 articles [ 23 – 28 , 30 – 35 , 37 – 39 , 41 – 43 , 47 , 48 , 59 , 63 , 64 ] addressed the relationship between the induced AR% and FR (Table 4 ); one described two AR assay methods [ 37 ]; another reported five AR triggers [ 41 ]; and two also mentioned different triggers [ 39 , 42 ] for a total of 30 total datasets extracted from these articles, comprising 1831 infertile couples (Fig.…”

“…Engauge Digitizer software ( http://markummitchell.github.io/engauge-digitizer/ ) was used to convert the scatter plots in seven articles [ 6 , 7 , 18 , 27 , 38 , 39 , 63 ] into coordinates to indirectly obtain acrosome function scoring and FRs. Pearson correlation coefficient from thirteen studies [ 4 , 8 , 9 , 18 , 22 , 24 , 31 , 39 , 41 , 43 , 44 , 54 , 55 ] was converted into spearman correlation coefficient (Rs) values followed by Fisher’s r-to-z and z-to-r transformation.…”

“…For the TEM, it is usually the god standard against which a new assay is measured and it cannot be routinely used owing to labor consuming and lack of sperm viability assay [ 21 ]. For the DBM, two stain (an acrosomal stain, a nuclear stain) [ 22 ] and triple stain (Bismark brown, rose Bengal, trypan blue) [ 23 , 24 ] are the most widely used. There are three classes of fluorescent labels: those that label permeabilized spermatozoa with internally directed probes, including fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated Pisurn sativum agglutimm (FITC-PSA) [ 25 – 36 ], peanut agglutinin (FITC-PNA) [ 37 – 39 ], Concanavalin A lectin (FITC-Con A) [ 40 ], GB24 antibody (FITC-GB24) [ 41 , 42 ], rhodamine-conjugated PSA (RITC-PSA) [ 43 ], and tetramethylrhodamine-conjugated PSA (TRITC-PSA) [ 44 ]; those that label permeabilized spermatozoa with by indirect immunofluorescence with antibodies—including HS21 [ 45 ], HS63 [ 46 ], GB24 [ 37 , 47 ], MH61 [ 29 ], anti-CD46 [ 48 ]—directed against acrosome-associated antigens; and those—such as chlortetracycline (CTC) [ 49 ]—that can be used on living, nonpermeabilized cells.…”