Relation between Abnormalities of Human Sperm Flagella and Respiratory Tract Disease

Abstract

Nineteen men with viable spermatozoa of a reduced motility were divided into two groups according to the morphology as seen in light microscopy; one with less (group A) and one with more (group B) than 50 % abnormal sperm tails. These men were eamined with regard to history and symptoms of respiratory tract diseases. Spermatozoa and cilia from the respiratory tract were examined with electron microscopy. Tracheobronchial clearance was evaluated with labelled teflon particles. Five men (group C) with the “immotile‐cilia syndrome”, primarily selected because of respiratory tract symptoms, were also studied with regard to sperm motility and morphology. There was a close correlation between immotility or very poor motility of the spermatozoa and ciliary dysfunction only when the spermatozoa had a normal configuration. Poor sperm motility coupled with abnormalities in the sperm tails, as evaluated with light microscopy, was rarely associated with ciliary dysfunction. The reason for this could be that the spermatozoa from these men (in group B) all had abnormal fibrous sheath and/or mitochondria: structures not present in cilia from the respiratory tract. Nine of the 12 men with immotile sperm tails (group A, B, and C) had the immotile‐cilia syndrome and a complete or partial lack of dynein arms in the sperm tails. Two other men with the immotile‐cilia syndrome had spermatozoa with some motility; spermatozoa from one had both inner and outer dynein arms and spermatozoa from the other lacked the outer arms. Respiratory tract cilia were studied in four men with the immotile‐cilia syndrome (from groups A and C). Inner and outer dynein arms were missing in the spermatozoa and cilia from three men, but in the same cells from the fourth man only the inner arms were absent.