OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of temperature on sperm motility, sperm motion characteristics, and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in semen. METHODS We collected semen samples from 12 infertile patients and 12 healthy donors and divided each sample into four aliquots just after liquefaction. One aliquot was analyzed immediately after liquefaction and the remaining three were ana...

The evaluation of infertility in males consists of physical examination and semen analyses. Standardized semen analyses depend on the descriptive analysis of sperm motility, morphology, and concentration, with a threshold level that must be surpassed to be considered a fertile spermatozoon. Nonetheless, these conventional parameters are not satisfactory for clinicians since 25% of infertility c...

Sperm competition and female choice are fundamentally driven by gender differences in investment per offspring and are often manifested as differences in variance in reproductive success: males compete and have high variance; most females are mated and have low variance. In marine organisms that broadcast spawn, however, females may encounter either sperm limitation or sperm competition. I meas...

AIM To 1) compare post-wash and post-thaw parameters of sperm processed with PureSperm density gradient technique and swim-up method; and 2) test the efficacy of two commonly available density gradient media PureSperm and ISolate. METHODS This prospective study used semen specimens from 22 patients. Specimens from nine patients were processed by both PureSperm density gradient and swim-up met...

The first equine pregnancy using sperm cryopreserved in glycerol was reported in 1957,1 and glycerol is still considered the optimal cryoprotectant for equine sperm.2–4 However, this opinion is largely based on data from other species, and research that evaluates additional cryoprotective agents (CPA’s) specifically for equine sperm is lacking. Other compounds such as ethylene glycol, dimethyl ...

The selection of morphologically normal spermatozoa is critical to obtain high breeding performances in boar breeding farms and artificial insemination (AI) centers. Parameters for the selection of semen mainly include total sperm motility, concentration, and morphology. However, these primary parameters are often not reliable for discriminating between normal and abnormal, non-fertilizable spe...

In most cooperative breeders, dominants suppress the reproduction of subordinates. However, two previous studies of Neolamprologus pulcher, a cooperatively breeding cichlid fish, have suggested that socially subordinate helper males sneak fertilizations from dominant breeding males. If such sneaking does occur, both theoretical work and empirical studies of other fish species suggest that sperm...

Boar semen is typically collected, diluted and cooled for AI use over numerous days, or frozen immediately after shipping to capable laboratories. The storage temperature and pH of the diluted, cooled boar semen could influence the fertility of boar sperm. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of pH and storage temperature on fresh and frozen-thawed boar sperm motili...

Preoperative and postoperative sperm parameter values from infertile men with varicocele were analyzed by computer-aided sperm analysis (CASA) to assess if sperm characteristics improved after varicocelectomy. Semen samples of men with proven fertility (n = 38) and men with varicocele-related infertility (n = 61) were also analyzed. Conventional semen analysis was performed according to WHO (20...

There is a fundamental body of evidence suggesting that activated apoptosis signaling in ejaculated human sperm negatively influences their fertilization potential. However, it is still controversial whether this apoptotic signaling is a relic of an abortive apoptosis related to spermatogenesis or if it should be regarded as a functional preformed pathway in mature sperm leading to stereotypica...