An Improved Indirect Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) Suitable for Mass Screening of Anti-Sperm Antibodies

Abstract

An improved, indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), which detects antisperm antibodies (ASA) in serum, which appears to be a sensitive and easy quantitative procedure for mass screening that is not available with conventional biologic assay systems. Using known positive human antisperm antisera, it was found that the ELISA method was quite reproducible at a wide spectrum of titers. When comparing the ELISA method and the gelatin agglutination (GAT) with the tray agglutination test (TAT) using heterologous mouse anti-human sperm antisera, it was found that the ELISA method was more sensitive than the GAT or TAT by more than a three fold dilution factor. The sera of 85 vasectomized subjects were studied with the ELISA, GAT and TAT to determine ASA. We concluded that, in busy laboratories with heavy workloads, this improved ELISA is a very sensitive, easily reproducible and efficient method of mass screening for sperm immunity.