The incidence of spontaneous acrosome reaction in homogeneous populations of hyperactivated human spermatozoa.

The incidence of spontaneous acrosome reaction occurring in 1314 individually selected hyperactivated (HA) human spermatozoa was compared to that occurring in 8226 individually selected non-hyperactivated spermatozoa (non-HA) sampled over an incubation time course to allow for capacitation. Two-way analysis of variance showed a significant difference between HA and non-HA spermatozoa for the mean percent acrosome reacted (R), partially acrosome reacted (PR) and combined total (R+PR) (P < 0.001). One-way analysis showed that among the HA spermatozoa there were marked differences among the proportion showing R+PR at the various time points (P = 0.005). Using the same end point, there was no significant evidence of change with time for the non-HA spermatozoa. The overall data indicated that HA human spermatozoa have a greater propensity for spontaneous acrosomal loss than non-HA spermatozoa during incubation in synthetic culture media.