Spermatozoa are not produced until puberty, long after the establishment of tolerance to self-antigens. Therefore, sperm-specific antigens are immunogenic in men. Most men, however, do not produce antibodies to their own gametes. Development of mechanisms to prevent or limit autoimmune responses to spermatozoa were essential for preservation of reproductive capacity. Tight junctions between adj...

Nitric oxide is a chemical messenger which functions as a neurotransmitter or as a cytotoxic agent. Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) has been isolated from various mammalian reproductive tissues. The presence or absence of NOS in spermatozoa has not yet been reported. We therefore tested human and murine spermatozoa for NOS activity by measuring the conversion of arginine to citrulline. No activity ...

BACKGROUND Sperm protein 17 (Sp17) is a three-domain protein that contains: 1) a highly conserved N-terminal domain that is 45% identical to the human type II alpha regulatory subunit (RII alpha) of protein kinase A (PKA); 2) a central sulphated carbohydrate-binding domain; and 3) a C-terminal Ca++/calmodulin (CaM) binding domain. Although Sp17 was originally discovered and characterized in spe...

This review describes oncogenic C-type virus and virus-associated antigens as phenotypic expressions of virus activities in malignant cells and cell surface antigens acquired by malignant transformation. The range of host-immune responses to these antigens in experimental systems is discussed in relation to the immunotherapy and immunoprophylaxis of human cancer patients.

We purified by fractionation on 10-40% glycerol gradients, 26S proteasomes from normal human spermatozoa. These proteasomes, which participate in the ATP-dependent degradation of ubiquitinated proteins, share a similar sedimentation coefficient to those purified from other human tissues. Fluorogenic peptide assays reveal they have chymotrypsin, trypsin and peptidyl-glutamyl-like peptide hydroly...

Many investigators maintain that spermatozoa that have initiated the acrosome reaction (AR) before reaching the surface of the egg's zona pellucida (ZP) are unable to bind and penetrate the ZP. A recent study has revealed that most fertilizing mouse spermatozoa initiate the AR before contacting the ZP. We found that acrosome-reacted spermatozoa collected from the perivitelline space of Cd9-null...

Two mouse anti-human monoclonal antibodies (S3.13 and S5.7) raised against cells of acute myelogenous leukemia were found to react with antigens expressed on the surface of subsets of monocytes and lymphocytes. S3.13 precipitates a peptide of Mr 29,000, and S5.7 precipitates a peptide of Mr 20,000 present on the surface of all the cell types tested. These two surface antigens were distributed o...

AMP-activated kinase (AMPK), a protein that regulates energy balance and metabolism, has recently been identified in boar spermatozoa where regulates key functional sperm processes essential for fertilization. This work's aims are AMPK identification, intracellular localization, and their role in human spermatozoa function. Semen was obtained from healthy human donors. Sperm AMPK and phospho-Th...

The effect of iron on the attachment of gonococci to human spermatozoa was investigated using the three iron salts, ferric chloride, ferric nitrate, and ammonium ferric citrate (AFC). Ferric chloride and ferric nitrate were found to be unsuitable for such studies because they were insoluble at physiological pH values, produced a marked decrease in the pH of unbuffered medium (Ringer's solution)...

Incorporation of A23187 ionophore into the human-hamster fertilization system clearly improves the ability of human spermatozoa to penetrate zona-free hamster oocytes. Thus, an increasing number of laboratories working in human sperm cytogenetics have substituted classical incubation with Biggers-Whitten-Whittingham (BWW) medium plus human serum albumin (HSA) by pretreatment of spermatozoa with...