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Journal of Andrology, Vol 18, Issue 3 281-288, Copyright © 1997 by The American Society of Andrology

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Evidence of proacrosin molecule abnormality as a possible cause of low acrosin activity and unexplained failure of fertilization in vitro

Y. Shimizu, H. Kodama, J. Fukuda and T. Tanaka
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Akita University School of Medicine, Japan.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the molecular abnormality of proacrosin is associated with an unexplained failure of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and low acrosin activity in human infertility. Seventeen infertile men, whose spermatozoa appeared to be normal but did not fertilize using a conventional IVF technique, were included in this study. Proacrosin molecules from each patient were screened with electrophoresis and Western blotting using either anti-human proacrosin or anti-boar acrosin polyclonal antibodies. The bands of proacrosin appeared equally on the sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) at an identical site and reacted equally with human proacrosin antibodies in all patients studied. The anti-boar acrosin antibodies cross-reacted with the proacrosin bands of the patients in all but two cases. The two patients also demonstrated lower levels of total acrosin activity and different peptide maps of the isolated proacrosin. In conclusion, the molecular abnormality of proacrosin, which is reflected by a lack of cross-reactivity to the anti-boar acrosin antibodies, is associated with low acrosin activity and may explain some cases of unexplained failure of human IVF treatment.


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Copyright © 1997 by The American Society of Andrology.