The hemizona assay (HZA): development of a diagnostic test for the binding of human spermatozoa to the human hemizona pellucida to predict fertilization potential. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • The authors present their initial results with the hemizona assay (HZA), which was developed to predict the fertilizing potential of spermatozoa. The HZA uses the matching halves of a human zona pellucida from a nonfertilizable and nonliving oocyte, providing an internal control on zona-to-zona variability. Maximal binding of human sperm to the hemizona usually occurred after 4 to 5 hours of coincubation. Sperm from fertile men exhibited significantly higher binding capacity to hemizonae compared with sperm from men who had fertilization failure during in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. The HZA index is calculated as follows: (bound sperm from subfertile male) divided by (bound sperm from fertile male) X 100. These findings demonstrate that the HZA may be a useful diagnostic tool in male infertility evaluations.

publication date

  • April 1, 1988

Research

keywords

  • Infertility, Male
  • Ovum
  • Sperm-Ovum Interactions
  • Zona Pellucida

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0023942614

PubMed ID

  • 3350165

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 49

issue

  • 4