Purification of a factor from human peritoneal fluid that is able to immobilize spermatozoa.

Human peritoneal fluid has been claimed to influence sperm motility. This report gives evidence for the presence in midcycle peritoneal fluid of a protein-bound, lipidic (hydrophobic) component able to immobilize spermatozoa as a function of time. This component was extracted from molecular weight-sieving and ion-exchange/high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC)-purified peritoneal fluid fractions by either chloroform/methanol or charcoal treatments; resuspension of the chloroform/methanol extract with BWW-buffer and subsequent testing on spermatozoa resulted in sperm immobilization. Sequential or step-down chromatographic procedures (molecular weight-sieving-->cation-exchange-->anion-exchange HPLC separations of native peritoneal fluid) and extensive dialysis against double distilled water allowed the purification of the sperm immobilizing factor, as evidenced by the shorter incubation times necessary for sperm immobilization. Furthermore, the active fraction was found to immobilize spermatozoa without affecting its viability. Separation of the chloroform/methanol extracted immobilizing fraction on thin layer chromatography under conditions for phospholipid detection allowed the identification of a characteristic band which, after re-extraction, was found to be the sperm immobilizing substance. This factor does not contain choline, ethanolamine or serine. These results suggest that some lipidic peritoneal fluid components may influence sperm motility.