Date of Award

Spring 1989

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Program/Concentration

Biomedical Sciences

Committee Director

James H. Yuan

Committee Member

Anibel A. Acosta

Committee Member

Patricia A. Pleban

Committee Member

Steven B. Ackerman

Committee Member

Keith A. Carson

Abstract

Current advances in fertility treatment emphasize extracorporeal procedures, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF)/embryo transfer. IVF is now used to treat several types of infertility, including male factor and idiopathic infertility. However, IVF is time consuming, costly, unpredictable, and often yields a low pregnancy rate. Thus, it would be valuable to devise laboratory procedures for better prediction of IVF outcome.

The male infertility rate can be as high as 50%. Since sperm count and percent of motility alone do not appear to be strong predictors of IVF outcome especially when these parameters are not severely abnormal, a multivariable analysis of other parameters was made. In addition, because many IVF centers use swim-up preparations of semen samples for insemination, whole semen and swim-up samples obtained for IVF were analyzed. Major sperm motion characteristics (such as sperm mean velocity and linearity), adenosine triphosphate (ATP), creatine kinase (CK) activity in whole semen and sperm, hypoosmotic swelling test (HOST), and sperm morphology were evaluated.

Comments

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Old Dominion University and Eastern Virginia Medical School in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Sciences.

DOI

10.25777/9yax-st57

Download

Included in

Biochemistry Commons

Share

COinS