Failure to confirm separation of X- and Y-bearing human sperm using BSA gradients

Abstract

THE ability to predetermine the sex of offspring before conception would have significant clinical and sociological implications in man¹ and would have great economic benefit if applied to the breeding of livestock. The claim of Ericsson et al.² that human spermatozoa bearing Y chromosomes can be separated from sperm containing X chromosomes by passage through a medium containing bovine serum albumin (BSA) or ovalbumin, is therefore of some importance. We have attempted to repeat the experiments to confirm these findings and report here our failure to do so.