IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION IN COUPLES WITH PREVIOUS FERTILIZATION FAILURE USING SPERM INCUBATED WITH PENTOXIFYLLINE AND 2-DEOXYADENOSINE

Objective: To evaluate whether incubation of spermatozoa with both pentoxifylline and 5-deoxyadenosine would improve fertilization rates in couples with previous IVF failure. Design: Autocontrolled design in which sibling oocytes were inseminated at random in vitro with spermatozoa treated or not treated by pentoxifylline and 2-deoxyadenosine. Mean Outcome Measures: Oocyte quality, sperm motility, fertilization in vitro, and embryo quality. Results: Sperm motility was found optimized by metabolic stimulation using pentoxifylline and 2-deoxyadenosine. The mean fertilization rate per patient was 33.1% in the treatment group compared with 37.0% in the control group. The mean cleavage rate per patient was 79.6% for treatment versus 68.7% for control embryos. No differences in embryo quality were noted. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that an indiscriminate use of pentoxifylline and 2-deoxyadenosine is not beneficial to fertilization in couples with previous IVF failure. Further prospective research may be needed to assess the benefit of pentoxifylline and 2-deoxyadenosine in patients selected by preliminary functional in vitro tests.