BACKGROUND Contraceptive vaccines can provide valuable alternatives to current methods of contraception. We describe here the development of sperm-reactive human single chain variable fragment (scFv) antibodies of defined sperm specificity for immunocontraception. METHODS Peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) from antisperm antibody-positive immunoinfertile and vasectomized men were activated wit...

Sperm have been studied for their obvious role in fertilization and as a model system for cell-cell interactions and cell signaling. Despite its central and critical role in reproduction, we know surprisingly little about the overall molecular composition of sperm. Interest in sperm function has greatly intensified for two reasons: first, it is becoming increasingly apparent that human infertil...

Background: Assisted fertilization procedures are a currently widespread practice to regulate reproduction in humans and animals. The arising question is why the human being manipulating gametes to generate new individuals, if we do not understand yet the molecular mechanism of fertilization?. Successful completion of fertilization in mammals is dependent on three membrane fusion events: 1. the...

Using a selective inhibitor of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, N-[2(methylamino)ethyl]-5-isoquinolinesulfonamide (H-8), the requirement for cAMP-dependent phosphoproteins in the initiation of dog sperm flagellar motility was examined. H-8 inhibited motility of live as well as reactivated sperm in a dose-dependent manner. The half-maximal inhibition of reactivated motility (32 microM) paralleled ...

Internal fertilization requires live sperm to be transferred from male to female before egg fertilization. Both males and females assist the insemination process by providing sperm with glandular secretions, which have been inferred to contain subsets of proteins that maintain sperm viability. Here we show that in the honeybee (Apis mellifera) secretions of the male accessory glands, the major ...

background: heat shock protein a2 (hspa2) is correlated with sperm maturity and function. therefore, dysfunctional expression of this gene results in abnormal spermatogenesis. on the other hand, dna damage in spermatozoa is considered to be an important cause of male infertility, and the presence of sperm with dna fragmentation and chromatin abnormalities in human ejaculates is well documented,...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the expression of oocyte-specific linker histone protein (hH1FOO) in human ovaries and its incorporation into sperm chromatin after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). DESIGN Laboratory study. SETTING University hospital. PATIENT(S) Human ovarian tissues were obtained from patients at oophorectomy. Human oocytes and embryos were obtained from infertile patien...

Sperm proteomics is the identification and functional study of sperm proteins. It is based on the separation of proteins to generate a sample suitable for mass spectrometry and subsequent protein identification. Various proteomic approaches can be employed to study sperm proteins. Currently it has led to the identification and cataloging of thousands of sperm proteins. Ultimately, the goal is t...

Bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP-15) expression has been detected in the testis, but its roles in this organ has not been well elucidated. We evaluated polymorphisms of the BMP-15 gene by PCR-SSCP and PCR-RFLP in 212 Chinese Holstein bulls, and investigated possible associations with sperm quality traits, including semen volume per ejaculate, sperm density, fresh sperm motility, thawed sperm ...

Generation of NO by nitric oxide synthase (NOS) is implicated in gamete interaction and fertilisation. Exposure of human spermatozoa to NO donors caused mobilisation of stored Ca(2+) by a mechanism that did not require activation of guanylate cyclase but was mimicked by S-nitroso-glutathione (GSNO; an S-nitrosylating agent). Application of dithiothreitol, to reduce protein -SNO groups, rapidly ...