To gain fertilizing capacity, mammalian sperm should reside in the female tract for a period of time. The physiological changes that render the sperm able to fertilize are known as capacitation. Capacitation is associated with an increase in intracellular pH, an increase in intracellular calcium, and phosphorylation of different proteins. This process is also accompanied by the hyperpolarizatio...

their sperm. As mentioned above, if sperm were not adapted to survive (sperm longevity) inside the female’s reproductive tract, the female would be limited in her ability to maintain sperm. Males may face a trade-off between sperm competitive ability (fast-swimming sperm) and ability to be stored (long-lived and slow-swimming sperm). Sperm pre-adaptations for storage include a decreased sensiti...

The Slc26 gene family encodes several conserved anion transporters implicated in human genetic disorders, including Pendred syndrome, diastrophic dysplasia and congenital chloride diarrhea. We previously characterized the TAT1 (testis anion transporter 1; SLC26A8) protein specifically expressed in male germ cells and mature sperm and showed that in the mouse, deletion of Tat1 caused male steril...

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is the method of choice for fertilizing horse oocytes in vitro. Nevertheless, for reasons that are not yet clear, embryo development rates are low. The aims of this study were to examine cytoskeletal and chromatin reorganization in horse oocytes fertilized by ICSI or activated parthenogenetically. Additional oocytes were injected with a sperm labeled with...

Cannabinoids, the main active components of marijuana, have been shown to exert different adverse effects on male reproduction both in vertebrates and invertebrates. The main effects of endocannabinoids, a particular group of endogenously produced cannabinoids, in sperm are the inhibition of motility, capacitation and acrosome reaction, all fundamental processes necessary for oocyte penetration...

T hirty years ago, on July 25, Steptoe and Edwards reported the birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first successful ‘‘Test-Tube’’ baby (1). This achievement followed a lack of success of in vitro fertilization experiments for almost 80 years since the first attempts in 1878. These early failures were due mainly to a lack of comprehension of sperm physiology. In the early 1950s, Chang (2) and Austin...

objective: globozoospermia is a rare type of teratozoospermia with incidence of 0.1% among infertile individuals. phospholipase c zeta (plcζ) and postacrosomal sheath ww domain binding protein (pawp) are the main candidates in sperm taking responsibility for oocyte activation during fertilization. therefore, we aimed to evaluate the expression of these two genes at rna and protein levels in glo...

Following entry into the female reproductive tract, mammalian sperm undergo a maturation process termed capacitation that results in competence to fertilize ova. Associated with capacitation is an increase in membrane conductance to both Ca(2+) and K(+), leading to an elevation in cytosolic Ca(2+) critical for activation of hyperactivated swimming motility. In mice, the Ca(2+) conductance (alka...