The Relationship between the Anti-Sperm Antibodies and Immunologic Infertility

Infertility is an outbreak phenomenon in the world and the outbreak of it is increasing. The anti-sperm antibodies (ASA) are one of the causes of infertility and the resultant infertility of them is called immunologic infertility. The ASA are present at the normal level in the circulating blood, but the higher level of them is harmful for the sperm cells and leads to the lower fertility potential. The blood-testis barrier (BTB) is a strong structure which protects sperm cells from the adverse effects of ASA and any change in this barrier interrupts the fertilization and fertility. In general, any factor that causes the contact between the ASA and sperm cells, leads to the lower fertility and even infertility. In this review, we investigated the role of the BTB in protection of sperm cells and the negative effects of ASA on the spermatozoa in preand post-fertilization steps.