Upstream; a novel method for separating humanmotile sperms

Background: sperm preparation is a fundamental step in art and attempt fordeveloping new methods to be continued.objective: to evaluate the efficacy of upstream method for separation of humanspermatozoa and its effects on sperm parameters including: motility, morphology, andconcentration.materials and methods: semen samples from 17 men who referred to infertility clinicfor evaluating their infertility problems were collected. semen was placed in floor of theupper container of device, and then media was gently placed on the upper semenportion. during the procedure, semen flowed from upper container and dropped inlower container. when semen flowed, the non-motile sperms, cells, debris and seminalplasma enter the lower container, while only motile sperms separated by swimmingupstream and go to the upper part of the medium. finally, all of the semen flowed fromthe upper container to the lower one, and merely the medium remained, whichcontained motile normal sperms.results: with application of upstream method, the recovered spermatozoa showedsignificant improvement with motility and normal morphology. the data showed thatmean sperm motility increased from 39% to 90% (p<0.0001) and normal morphologyincreased from 25% to 32 % (p<0.0001) after processing using new method. inaddition, the concentration of round cells decreased to zero in all samples.conclusion: the results indicate that upstream method can enrich the sperm populationof normal motile sperms. also, the new method is simple and does not requirecentrifugation step or any chemicals.