BACKGROUND The aetiology of human male fertility, with impairment of sperm number, motility and morphology (oligoasthenoteratozoospermia), has been difficult to understand, partly for lack of animal models. METHODS An ethylnitrosourea (ENU) mutagenesis strategy has been successful in producing heritable gene mutations with phenotypes similar to human male infertility, and here, we describe th...

Background: Iron oxide nanoparticles are commonly used for various purposes, such as biomedical, medical, and cosmetic services and research. However, there is a little information about the effects of the nanoparticles on human health. The current investigation was conducted to evaluate the adverse effects of iron oxide nanoparticles (FeNP) on the reproductive organs of mice, such as the testi...

or Hets and WT (Table 1) for testicular weights, a measure of total sperm production. However, in analyses of a minimum of 200 sperm per animal, gross motility (80% reduced) and progressive motility (91% reduced) were significantly (P < 0.001; Table 1) impaired in null sperm, compared to WT. The Het sperm showed 35% and 32% decrease (P < 0.001) in gross and progressive motility (P < 0.001), com...

The effects of routine sperm work are often overlooked. We assessed the effect of washing cryopreserved epididymal spermatozoa from red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus, Helzheimer 1909). After thawing, epididymal samples (four stags) were diluted in TALP-HEPES. A split was left untouched, another was centrifuged (300 x g, 5 min) and resuspended, and a third was centrifuged and the supernatant s...

BACKGROUND For men with azoospermia, it is possible to father their own progeny by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with epididymal or testicular sperm. Some studies show that children born after assisted reproductive technology (ART) are at increased risk of birth defects, other studies suggest that there is no extra concern about ICSI children conceived with epididymal or testicular sp...

background: pentoxifylline (px) prevents camp breakdown by inhibiting the activity of the camp-phosphatase and presumably, stimulates sperm motion. incubation with px causes hyperactivation of sperm, an important step in achieving fertilization, and leads to changes in membranes associated with sperm capacitation. objective: the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of pentoxifylline...

Osmotic stress is an important factor that can result in cell damage during cryopreservation. Before ejaculation or collection for cryopreservation, murine spermatozoa are stored in epididymal fluid, a physiologically hyperosmotic environment (approximately 415 mmol/kg). The objectives of this study were to determine the osmotic tolerance limits of sperm motion parameters of ICR and C57BL/6 mou...