Process for counting sperms and reagent therefor

This application is related to Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-52953, filed on Feb. 29, 2000 whose priority is claimed under 35 USC § 119, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety. A process for counting sperms (sperm cells) comprises the steps of: (1) mixing a specimen containing sperms with an aqueous solution containing a cationic surfactant in an amount effective in removing contaminants contained in the specimen to give a surfactant-treated specimen, (2) staining the sperms contained in the surfactant-treated specimen with a staining liquid containing a dye for staining nucleic acid to give a measuring specimen, (3) introducing the measuring specimen into a flow cell in a flow cytometer and irradiating the stained sperms in the measuring specimen with excitation light, (4) detecting a scattered light signal and a fluorescent light signal emitted from the sperms irradiated with the excitation light, (5) preparing a two-dimensional distribution involving two axes of a scattered light intensity and a fluorescent light intensity based on the scattered light signal and the fluorescent light signal, and (6) specifying a region of a sperm mass on the two-dimensional distribution and counting the number of sperm in the region of the sperm mass.