The effect of immunoglobulin occurring on human sperm in vivo on the human sperm/hamster ova penetration assay.

We selected 91 infertile men who were tested for increased sperm-associated immunoglobulin and also tested in the human sperm/hamster ova penetration assay. There was a statistically significant association between the presence of increased sperm-associated IgG alone (p = 0.0218) and both sperm-associated IgG and A (p = 0.0187) when correlated with the failure to penetrate any hamster ova. There was a trend but no statistical significance when sperm-associated immunoglobulin A alone was present. There was a trend but no statistical relationship between the presence of sperm-associated immunoglobulin and the sperm penetration assay when the criteria for normality of the sperm penetration assay was a 15% or greater ovum penetration rate.