The procedure for bovine in vitro fertilization (NF) involving the collection of ovaries at the slaughterhouse, maturation of oocytes in vitro (NM), capacitation and insemination in vitro and development to blastocysts in vitro is well established. Transportation of ovaries in physiological saline at 23 and 38°C afforded a large number of oocytes capable to develop to blastocysts after in vitro...

Ejaculated mammalian spermatozoa must reside in the female genital tract for some time before gaining the ability to fertilize the egg. During this time, spermatozoa undergo some physiological changes that collectively are called capacitation. Capacitation of mammalian spermatozoa is a prerequisite for acrosome reaction, which is an exocytotic event occurring before fertilization. The specific ...

There are several physiological and pharmacological evidences indicating that opening of voltage dependent Ca channels play a critical role in induction of acrosome reaction in mammalian sperm. We determined the intracellular free Ca concentration in ejaculated goat sperm using a fluorescent, Ca-specific probe, Fura2/AM, after the suspension of sperm in KRB medium, capable of sustaining capacit...

Seminal plasma ingredients are important for maintenance of sperm viability. This study focuses on the effect of boar seminal plasma exosomes on sperm function during long-term liquid storage. Boar seminal plasma exosomes had typical nano-structure morphology as measured by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and molecular markers such as AWN, CD9 and CD63 by western blot analysis. The effect on...

This chapter explores the possibility that capacitation and apoptosis are linked processes joined by their common dependence on the continued generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). According to this model capacitation is initiated in spematozoa following their release into the female reproductive tract as a consequence of intracellular ROS generation, which stimulates intracellular cAMP g...

Cholesterol is a main lipid component of sperm cell that is essential for sperm membrane fluidity, capacitation, and acrosomal reaction. Recent data obtained in bovine sperm showed that sperm capacitation is associated to the formation of oxysterols, oxidized products of cholesterol. The aim of this study was to profile oxysterol content in human semen, and to investigate their potential role i...

Testicular sperm that have undergone spermatogeneis and spermiogenesis appear mature from a morphological standpoint but have acquired neither progressive motility nor the ability to fertilize a metaphase Il-arrested egg. In many species, progressive motility and fertilization competence are acquired during epididyma! transit, but complete fertilization capacity in vivo is only gained upon resi...

The adoption of high-througput technologies demonstrated that in mature spermatozoa are present proteins that are thought to be not present or active in sperm cells, such as those involved in control of cell cycle. Here, by using an in silico approach based on the application of networks theory, we found that Cyclins/Cdk complexes could play a central role in signal transduction active during c...

Sperm capacitation is required for fertilization. At the molecular level, this process is associated with fast activation of protein kinase A. Downstream of this event, capacitating conditions lead to an increase in tyrosine phosphorylation. The identity of the tyrosine kinase(s) mediating this process has not been conclusively demonstrated. Recent experiments using stallion and human sperm hav...

BACKGROUND Generation of controlled amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and phosphorylation of protein tyrosine residues (Tyr) are two closely related changes involved in sperm capacitation. This study investigated the effect of altered endogenous ROS production on Tyr-phosphorylation (Tyr-P), acrosome reaction (AR) and cell viability during sperm capacitation. The possible origin of the a...