We investigated sperm nuclear vacuolation in relation to acrosome reactions and the maintenance of sperm motility. Thirty male\npatients who visited our Male Infertility Clinic were enrolled.These patients underwent conventional semen analyses, Acrobeads\ntests, and high-magnification observation of the sperm head to evaluate the degree of nuclear vacuolation on the Acrobeads test\nscoring after 24 hours of incubation. The presence of acrosome reactions was evaluated using the Acrobeads test. The spermatozoa\nwere classified into three groups: (I) those bound to MH61-beads, (II) motile spermatozoa that did not bind to MH61-beads,\nand (III) immotile spermatozoa that did not bind to MH61-beads. The percentage of spermatozoa with large nuclear vacuoles\n(%LNV) was compared between the three groups. The degree of sperm nuclear vacuolation was evaluated in 17,992 ejaculated\nspermatozoa. The mean %LNVs were 2.4% in group I, 5.8% in group II, and 9.8% in group III. These values were significantly\ndifferent from each other (P < 0.001, paired t-test). There were no correlations between the %LNV values and the Acrobeads\nscores. In conclusion, the degree of sperm nuclear vacuolation was significantly lower in the acrosome-reacted spermatozoa and\nspermatozoa with maintained motility, and higher in the immotile spermatozoa that did not bind to MH61-beads.
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