Assessment of Antisperm Antibodies in Patients with Hepatitis C Virus Infection : A controlled study

Abstract

Background: Antisperm antibody (ASA) is defined as an immunoglobulin with antibody activity against a sperm antigen that plays a role in fertility. It has been hypothesized that hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection of lymphocytes is the cause for the increased autoimmune phenomena and autoantibody production reported in association with HCV. The development of ASA has been previously reported in cases with human papilloma virus (HPV), where infertile males with HPV in semen showed higher ASA percentages compared with infertile males with no HPV in semen. Aim: To investigate the influence of HCV infection on the development of ASAs in diagnosed HCV male patients. Patients and Methods: The study included two groups: group one included 25 patients who were infected with HCV, and group two included 25 healthy controls. Semen analyses by CASA were performedand serum and semen samples were taken for all patients to detect ASA by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: In the patient group, 28% were positive for ASA in semen versus 4% in the control group with a statistically significant difference between the two groups ( P =0.049). ASA levels in serum were positive in 36% of patients versus 12% in the control group with a statistically significant difference between the two groups ( P =0.047). There were significant negative correlations between progressive motility, agglutination, and the level of patient’s ASA in both serum (r= ‒ 0.635, P <0.001, r= ‒ 0.749, P <0.001, respectively) and semen (r= ‒ 0.764, P =0.001; r= ‒ 1, P <0.001, respectively). Conclusion: The coincidence of ASA in males with hepatitis C infection diseases was significantly higher than healthy controls.