Objective: The testicular sperm from biopsy and frozen/thawed tissue are frequently immotile. The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of short exposure of testicular samples with immotile sperm to pentoxifylline (PF)-a sperm motility stimulator. Method: Eight-one cases with testicular sperm ablation/testicular sperm extraction-intracytoplasmic sperm injection (TESA/TESE-ICSI) cycles in patients with azoospermia were divided into 2 groups. In group A, only immotile sperm were found in biopsies after 2 hours of incubation of tissue in culture medium, and were then treated for 20 minutes with pentoxifylline (PF) and selected the sperm with motility before ICSI(n=32). In group B, ICSI was performed with that having motile sperm found at first (n=49). Oocyte maturity, fertilization rate (2PN rate), total fertilization failure rate, embryo cleavage rate and proportion of transferable embryos as well as pregnancy rate and implantation rate were compared between the two groups. Results: Both groups had the same oocyte maturation rate（80.2% vs 82.8%）, fertilization rate（65.9% vs 65.9%）, proportion of abnormal fertilization (7.6% vs 4.8%), and the similar proportion of total fertilization failure (3.1% vs 10.2%, P>0.05）. However, when compared with that having motile sperm at first group, embryo cleavage rate was significantly lower and proportion of bastocyst culture of poor quality embryos was higher, and transfe-rable embryos was less in the PF group (91.4% vs 97.2%, P=0.007). The clinical pregnancy rate per cycle(39.1% vs 39.3%), implantation rate（25.6% vs 28.0%） and abortion rate and live birth rate were not different between the two groups. Conclusions: Treated with PF in cases of immotile testicular sperm can cause the movement of testicular sperm, allowing easier identification of vital sperm, shortening the procedure, improving the fertilization rates, lowering the chance of total fertilization failure and improving the ICSI outcome.
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