Epididymal sperm aspiration and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) with intracytoplasmic sperm injection is an established treatment for obstructive azoospermia. Sperm aspiration is performed with either an incision or percutaneously. To control costs, minimize morbidity and retain the advantages of both approaches, we developed a mini-incision technique for epididymal aspiration and here report sper...

Apart from condoms and vasectomy, modern contraceptive methods for men are still not available. Besides hormonal approaches to stop testicular sperm production, the post-meiotic blockage of epididymal sperm maturation carries lots of promise. Microarray and proteomics techniques and libraries of expressed sequence tags, in combination with digital differential display tools and publicly availab...

The epididymal lumen represents a unique extracellular environment because of the active sperm maturation process that takes place within its confines. Although much focus has been placed on the interaction of epididymal secretory proteins with spermatozoa in the lumen, very little is known regarding how the complex epididymal milieu as a whole is maintained, including mechanisms to prevent or ...

Mass spectrometric analysis of a prion protein (PrP)-containing complex isolated from ram cauda epididymal fluid revealed a protein that showed homology to a carboxylesterase-like protein previously identified in cat urine (cauxin). Using anti-cauxin antibodies, immunoreactive bands were detected in corpus and cauda epididymal fluid from all mammals tested (ram, boar, mouse, and cat). In the ra...

Hypertriglyceridemia of sepsis is associated with suppressed tissue lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activities. We investigated the effect of sepsis on lipoprotein lipase gene expression in epididymal fat and soleus muscle from control and septic rats in the fasted and fed state. After 24 h of sepsis, LPL activity decreased significantly in epididymal fat from fasted rats by 45% along with a 57% reduc...

Vitamin D3 is a steroid hormone well known by its role in maintaining calcium homeostasis, however this hormone may also participate in other biological functions, including control of reproductive processes. The vitamin D3 action is mediated by the vitamin D3 receptor (VDR). VDR is widely distributed in the rodent reproductive tract, however the occurrence of VDR and the role of the vitamin D3...

During epididymal transit, spermatozoa acquire new proteins. Some of these newly acquired proteins behave as integral membrane proteins, including glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins. This suggests that the secreted epididymal proteins are transferred to spermatozoa by an unusual mechanism. Within the epididymal lumen, spermatozoa interact with small membranous vesicles named e...

Epithelial cells of human and animal epididymis display features of steroidogenic cells. Rat epididymal epithelial cells in vitro produce androgens which are converted to 17beta-estradiol, and released into the medium. The regulation of the epididymal steroidogenesis is not fully understood but it could be expected that it remains under LH influence. In previous study we observed that the morph...

Monoclonal antibodies (mabs) have been used as a powerful tool for identification of newer sperm proteins. However, conventional hybridoma technology rarely provides chance to obtain mabs to epididymal proteins. To increase this chance, we have used an alternate method of neonatal tolerization. In this protocol, animals were tolerized at birth using testicular proteins followed by immunization ...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the androgen receptor (AR) distribution in epididymal cells of developing rats and the effects of prepubertal epididymal obstruction upon AR distribution in the rat caput epididymis. At 15 days of age, the young rats were divided at random into groups for epididymal ligation or sham operation. In the ligation group the corpus epididymides were lig...