ABSTRACT
Objective@#To investigate whether in vitro culture medium (IVCM) for sparse spermatozoa can improve human sperm motility for the purpose of helping clinicians, laboratorians and patients choose a better strategy of assisted reproduction.@*METHODS@#Semen samples were obtained from 178 males for routine semen examination from March to August 2016, including 151 cases of asthenozoospermia and 27 cases of normal sperm motility. A total of 200 μl was collected from each sample and divided into two equal portions and equal volumes of IVCM (experimental group) and F10 (1×) (control group) were added to the two portions, respectively, followed by 30-minute incubation at 37℃ in an incubator with 5% CO2. Sperm concentration, motility and viability and the percentages of progressively motile, non-progressively motile and immotile sperm were recorded before and after incubation.@*RESULTS@#After activated with IVCM, neither the samples with asthenozoospermia nor those with normal sperm motility showed any statistically significant difference in sperm viability from the baseline or the control group (P>0.05). The rates of progressively and non-progressively motile sperm from the asthenozoospermia males were increased by 14.02% and 4.86% respectively, while that of immotile sperm decreased by 19.01% in the experimental group (P >0.01), and similar results were observed in the semen samples from the men with normal sperm motility. The percentage of reduced immotile viable sperm was positively correlated with that of immotile viable sperm in both the asthenozoospermia patients (r = 0.260, P <0.01) and the men with normal sperm motility (r = 0.679, P <0.01).@*CONCLUSIONS@#IVCM can increase sperm motility without affecting sperm viability in men with either asthenozoospermia or normal sperm motility. The larger the proportion of immotile viable sperm, the higher the percentages of progressively and non-progressively motile sperm in the semen after IVCM activation, and this correlation is more significant in men with normal sperm motility than in asthenozoospermia patients.