JBRA Assisted Reproduction 2025;29(Suppl.2 SBRA 2025):247
Poster Presentation
29^th Annual Congress of the SBRA. São Paulo/SP - Brazil, 2025
doi: 10.5935/1518-0557.20263834

P-235. The use of Percoll reagent in the sperm capacitation process in a clinical laboratory

Aline Andresa Bonadio¹, Daniel Suslik Zylbersztejn¹, Regina de Alcantara Aby Azar¹, Patricia Rossi do Sacramento¹, Jose Carlos Cezar Ibanhez Truzzi¹, Luana Alves Da Silva¹, Gabrielle da Silva Nascimento¹

¹ Grupo Fleury - São Paulo – SP - Brasil

Objective: The assessment of male fertility potential begins with a sperm count, which is the main test requested. Based on its results, other tests may be necessary for a more specific evaluation. Seminal processing is a method of evaluating sperm to better identify the potential of this semen. Depending on the result, the semen is capable of achieving a natural pregnancy or should be used for assisted reproduction treatments, such as Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) or Classic In Vitro Fertilization (ICSI) or Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). The seminal separation technique calculates the total number of motile and better-formed sperm in the patient's raw ejaculate. This study aims to compare semen recovery rates using batch processing, using two different types of reagents with different density gradients: Percoll reagent (a laboratory-prepared solution) with 80% and 40% density columns, and Isolate reagent (a ready-made solution from Irvine), with 90% to 50% density columns.
Methods: Thirty samples from patients aged 23 to 47 years were analyzed, all with normozoospermia (greater than 15 million mL). The concentrations used ranged from 29.8 million/mL to 167.9 million/mL, and progressive motility (A+B) ranged from 15% to 83%. The samples were collected between May and June 2019 in the semen analysis laboratory. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were based on the WHO 2010 parameters. Before collection, all patients completed an anonymous clinical questionnaire regarding abstinence period, sample loss, surgeries, etc.
Results: Based on data analysis, it was concluded that the technique using Percoll columns at concentrations of 80% and 40% showed superior performance, both in recovering sperm concentration (50%) and motility (72%), compared to the use of Isolate columns (90% and 50%), which showed rates of 27% in concentration and 67% in motility.
Conclusion: Given these results, the Percoll technique was recommended and began to be routinely used for tests requiring semen processing in the seminal analysis laboratory.