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Sperm Processing for IVF

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Practical Manual of In Vitro Fertilization

Abstract

The first sperm separation methods that were developed only comprised of one or two washing procedures to eliminate seminal plasma with subsequent resuspension of the male germ cells. Following these first reports on human sperm processing, more sophisticated methods were developed in order to obtain sufficient amounts of motile, functionally competent spermatozoa for IVF, one of them being a swim-up procedure from a washed cell pellet. Except for the first washing procedures, modern sperm processing techniques can be differentiated in migration, filtration, and density-gradient centrifugation. While for all migration techniques (conventional swim-up and migration-sedimentation), the sperm cells’ most obvious feature, self-propelled movement, is an essential prerequisite; the separation principle in the filtration and density-gradient centrifugation techniques is based on a combination of the sperms’ own motility and their adherence to filtration matrices and the retention at phase borders, respectively. Apart from possible financial considerations, sperm physiology and the physiology of the fertilization process have to be taken into account for any method of assisted reproduction in order to better select functional sperm or better protect and “preserve” sperm functions from damages caused by the separation process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Bioscience, University of the Western Cape, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Western Cape Province, Cape Town, 7535, South Africa

    Ralf Henkel PhD

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  1. Ralf Henkel PhD
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Correspondence to Ralf Henkel PhD .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Scientific and Laboratory Director, Reproductive Biology Associates, Atlanta, 30342, Georgia, USA

    Zsolt Peter Nagy

  2. , Sr. Embryologist, Montreal Reproductive Centre, Montreal, H4A 3J3, Québec, Canada

    Alex C. Varghese

  3. Center for Reproductive Medicine, Department of Urology, Cleveland Clinic, Euclid Avenue 9500, Cleveland, 44195, Ohio, USA

    Ashok Agarwal

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Henkel, R. (2012). Sperm Processing for IVF. In: Nagy, Z., Varghese, A., Agarwal, A. (eds) Practical Manual of In Vitro Fertilization. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1780-5_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1780-5_23

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