Co-incubation of human spermatozoa with Chlamydia trachomatis serovar E causes premature sperm death

The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of elementary bodies (EB) of Chlamydia trachomatis serovars E and LGV on sperm motility, viability and acrosomal status. Highly motile preparations of spermatozoa from normozoospermic patients were co-incubated for 6 h with 0.54×106 EB per ml. At 1, 3 and 6 h of incubation, sperm motility was determined by computer-assisted semen analysis (CASA) and the proportion of dead cells determined by the hypo-osmotic swelling (HOS) test. Acrosomal status was also examined using a standard monoclonal antibody assay. In the absence of EB, the percentage of motile spermatozoa remained >69% over the 6h incubation and the proportion of dead spermatozoa at <12%. However, during the incubation with EB of serovar E there was a significant decline in the percentage of motile spermatozoa (P < 0.05), and a corresponding increase in the proportion of dead spermatozoa (P < 0.05) at all time-points. However, following incubation with serovar LGV, only the percentage of dead spermatozoa after 6 h incubation was significantly different from the control (P < 0.05). The amount of acrosome-reacted spermatozoa remained unchanged (