Assessment of hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOST) of spermatozoa supplemented with pentoxifylline (PTX) after preparation by conventional layering technique in infertile patients undergoing intra-uterine insemination performance

The current study was designed to compare the percentage of human sperm hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOST) with and without pentoxifylline supplemented for semen samples prepared by conventional layering technique by using 1ml of the liquefied semen was layered beneath 1ml of IVF culture medium after intra-uterine insemination (IUI) technique. Form each infertile male, Thirty normal semen samples were collected by masturbation after 3-5 days abstinence and allow liquefying at 37ºC in 5% CO2 for 30 minutes and evaluated before and after in vitro sperm activation. The final samples were divided into two tubes, each one contain 0.5 ml liquefied semen. Therefore, 0.5 ml pentoxifylline was added into one tube and another tube as a control, also hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOST) was evaluated for each semen samples. The hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOST) was performed before and after in vitro sperm preparation by mixing 0.1 ml of liquefied semen with 1.0 ml of 150 mOsm/ L NaCl as hypo-osmotic solution. The sperm function tests (SFTs) including sperm concentration, sperm motility (%), progressive sperm motility (%), and normal sperm morphology (%) were evaluated according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. The results of the present study indicate that the percentage of swollen spermatozoa in pentoxifylline supplemented group was significantly higher than the control group (70.80±2.32 vs. 58.75±1.58; P 0.001). It was concluded that addition of pentoxifylline to the semen samples prepared by conventional layering technique can improve functional integrity of sperm plasma membrane.