Sperm toxicity testing: UK best practice guideline from the Association of Biomedical Andrologists

In order to ensure the quality and integrity of diagnostic semen analysis results, materials used should be tested to ensure that they do not interfere with sperm function. As a toxicity test, complex sperm function testing may be considered controversial, since the fertilizing capacity of single sperm can never be assured. In preference, sperm motility offers a unique means of assessing the toxicity of reagents and materials before they are used in routine practice. Motility is the semen parameter most likely to be influenced by the external environment. Indeed, it is the main reason that laboratories insist on supplying their own approved specimen containers and ensuring that patients, as far as possible, adhere to strict conditions for sample collection and transport prior to testing. This differs to other indirect tests of toxicity such as the mouse embryo assay, whereby the rate of mouse pre-implantation embryo development to the blastocyst stage is compared. This guideline is aimed at health care scientists who deal with andrology in both general pathology and specialised fertility laboratories, and provides a model approach to sperm toxicity testing. For assisted reproduction clinics, the same methodology can be used to test any consumables that are used for sperm processing, and as an indirect guide for any consumables that come into direct contact with oocytes and pre-implantation embryos.