Infertility affects up to 17% of couples, about 30–50% of cases are due to male factors, one of the main causes of male infertility is Asthenospermia and improving sperm motility was reported to be associated with increased outcome either after intrauterine insemination or after in vitro fertilization. In males with sperm motility problems, several agents have been defined to increase sperm motility. So, we aimed to investigate the effect of pentoxifylline, a commonly used agent to achieve sperm motility in the embryology laboratory, and platelet activating factor (PAF) use of which has recently begun to be reported. It was a double blinded controlled randomized trial, simple random sample was taken from study population. The total number was 50 patients. The semen samples were collected by masturbation after 2 to 5 days of sexual abstinence, the present study included 50 males aged between 18 to 50 years were divided into three samples (groups). Gp1 was served as a negative control without any activation. Gp 2 was treated by pentoxifylline. Gp 3 was treated by platelet-activating factor. Each sample was examined after addition the activation (test 1) and after one hour (test 2) and after 2 hours (test 3). The results showed that pre-treatment mobility assessment of the studied sample was: Total Motility (%) 28.60 ± 23.699, Rapid Motility (%) 1.40 ± 2.157, Slow Motility (%) 5.24 ± 6.301. After activation by Pentoxifylline Immediate motility was 44.64 ± 27.04, after one hour motility was 28.60 ± 19.961, and after two hours motility was 14.40 ± 12.438. After activation by Platelet-activating factor the immediate motility was 50.28 ± 28.719, after one hour motility was 35.0 ± 20.589, and after two hours motility was 19.36 ± 14.240. We concluded that both of pentoxifylline, and platelet activating factor resulted in an immediate increase in motility, Platelet-activating factor has more pronounced and durable effect on sperm activation in asthenozoospermia cases than pentoxifylline.
Key words: Infertility, assisted reproduction techniques (ART), in vitro fertilization, intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), sperm motility, Pentoxifylline, Platelet activating factor
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