The results of the present study show that bilaterally vasectomized rabbits with high levels of antibodies to sperm antigens frequently develop an orchitis associated with granular deposits of rabbit IgG and C3 in the basement membranes of seminiferous tubules. The immune deposits correspond in location to electron-opaque deposits seen by electron microscopy. The "membranous orchitis" is charac...

Antisperm antibodies are detected in 3% to 25% of cases men and women diagnosed with infertility. They can also be 1–10% healthy fertile men. The presence a high titer AST is one the factors male infertility, which «hidden», i. e. not cause symptoms deterioration overall spermogram. objective: analyze results sperm testing antisperm antibodies, were by MAR-test. Material methods. A retrospectiv...

A novel dodecamer peptide sequence, YLP(12), was identified on human sperm that is involved in oocyte binding. We investigated its immunocontraceptive effects in a murine model. A vaccine was prepared by conjugating the synthetic YLP(12) peptide with the binding subunit of recombinant cholera toxin. Vaccination of female mice by i.m. or intranasal routes without any additional adjuvant induced ...

Mesoscale structures (microns dimensions, nL-pL volumes) have been designed and fabricated in silicon for use in various analytical tasks. We studied sperm motility and performed sperm selection in channels (80 microns wide x 20 microns deep), branching structures (40 microns wide x 20 microns deep, eight bifurcations), and channels containing barriers (7 microns feature size). Sperm-cervical m...

Males of many species exhibit sperm heteromorphism, in which multiple morphologies of sperm are produced in a common testis (see references in [1]). Polymegaly, a form of sperm heteromorphism, is found in the Drosophila obscura group and is characterized by the production of two size classes of nucleated sperm that differ only in head and tail lengths [1,2]. Both the length and the ratio of spe...

Sterilization of men and women is the most popular method of contraception in Canada. The contraceptive effect of a vasectomy usually occurs within 3 months. The production of sperm, however, is not interrupted, and an increase in pressure proximal to the ligation site may cause rupture of the epididymis or the ductus deferens, with extravasation of spermatozoa and the formation of granulomas o...

In mammalian species, oocyte activation is initiated by oscillations in the intracellular concentration of free calcium ([Ca(2+)]i), which are also essential to allow embryonic development. To date, evidence supporting the hypothesis that a sperm factor is responsible for initiating oocyte activation has been presented in various mammalian species. Among the possible candidates to be the active...

BACKGROUND The hypo-osmotic swelling (HOS) test evaluates the ability of the functional sperm plasma membrane to stretch following cell swelling when exposed to hypo-osmotic solutions. Sperm samples with low HOS scores show low fertilization and pregnancy rates during assisted reproductive techniques, though data are controversial. The aim of this study was to compare the results of the HOS tes...

To investigate whether a specific isotype of tubulin is involved in flagellar motility, we have developed and screened a panel of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) generated against sea urchin sperm axonemal proteins. Antibodies were selected for their ability to block the motility of permeabilized sperm models. The antitubulin mAb B3 completely inhibited, at low concentrations, the flagellar motilit...

Among the numerous anti-sperm monoclonal antibodies generated in our laboratory, HS-33 was shown to react with a conserved antigen on the acrosome of spermatozoa from human and mouse. By using indirect immunofluorescent assay, it was demonstrated that HS-33 did not bind to live human sperm. However, this antibody was found to react with the methanol-fixed acrosome-intact, but not with acrosome-...