The following conclusions can be made: mobile spermatozoa of normal
morphology can be infected with HSV; as shown morphologically, samples
of ejaculate from men whose wives had spontaneous abortions contained
intragametic HSV capsides; intragametic HSV infection of spermatozoa
had a negative effect on the course of pregnancy and/or embryon
vitality.

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) was studied in ejaculate of 36 men whose
wives had the history of spontaneous abortions, or failure of
artificial insemination (AI), or extracorporeal fertilization (ECF).
The control group consisted of 222 patients examined prophylactically
after urogenital inflammation or for primary infertility. HSV was
detected with immunofluorescence (IF) reaction with monoclonal
antibodies to HSV antigens, rapid culture method (RCM) and transmission
electronic microscopy. HSV antigens were detected in fraction of mobile
spermatozoa in 13 (65%) of 20 samples from patients of the study group.
HSV detectability in the study group was significantly higher than in
the controls (p = 0.003). Intragametic capsides of HSV were detected at
ultrastructural investigation in 13 of 19 (68%) ejaculate samples from
patients of the study group in whom IF and/ or RCM results were
positive. The study of 6 ejaculate samples of this group in which HSV
was not detected by IF or RCM and 24 control samples HSV capsides were
not detected.

PMID: 17722621 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE