Sperm-agglutinating antibodies and testicular morphology in fifty-nine men with azoospermia or cryptozoospermia.

The relationship between the state of the germinal epithelium and the type and titer of circulating sperm-agglutinating antibodies has been investigated in a series of 59 azoospermic or occasionally cryptozoospermic men. The patients were grouped according to the condition of the germinal epithelium as observed from testicular biopsy specimens, as well as to type and titer of circulating sperm-agglutinating antibodies investigated by a previously described microagglutination technique. Evidence is presented to suggest that the presence of mature spermatozoa in the testicular structures may be a prerequisite for the spontaneous production of circulating sperm-agglutinating antibodies, at least of the head-to-tail (H-T) agglutinating type. Furthermore, these circulating H-T sperm-agglutinating antibodies, once they are formed, do not seem to interfere adversely with the germinal epithelium of the carrier.