This study was conducted to determine whether the mode of sperm immobilization prior to intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) influences fertilization by immature spermatozoa. Of the 837 ICSI cycles evaluated, 81 were performed with epididymal or testicular spermatozoa; 35 cycles with epididymal spermatozoa immobilized in the standard fashion resulted in fertilization and pregnancy rates of 4...

Although dog prostatic fluid decreases the longevity of ejaculated dog spermatozoa, it also increases their rate of motility and their fertility after vaginal insemination, as well as the fertility of epididymal spermatozoa after uterine insemination. These findings indicate a need to further characterize the effects of prostatic fluid on dog spermatozoa. This study was done to determine the ef...

Cryopreservation of epididymal sperm is an effective technique to preserve genetic materials of domestic cats and wild felids when they unexpectedly die. However, this technique inevitably causes detrimental changes of cryopreserved-thawed spermatozoa, for example, by physical damage and excessive oxidative stress. L-carnitine is an antioxidant that has been used to improve sperm motility in hu...

The present study reports data on post-translational modifications in the glycosylation status during epididymal passage and significance in fertility of a 33 kDa glycoprotein of rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta), designated as MEF3 (monkey epididymal fluid protein 3). MEF3 exhibited strong affinity for N-linked alpha-D-mannose groups and O-linked N-Ac-galactosamine linkages in epididymal fluids a...

It has been reported that following administration, alkylphenols, such as octylphenol, reach the testis and epididymis but fail to accumulate in these tissues, suggesting the rapid expulsion of these chemicals by transporters. Specialized transporters that function to restrict compounds that enter target cells have been identified. ABCB1 is a member of the ATP-binding cassette family of protein...

Human epididymal tissue was recovered from 11 patients undergoing orchidectomy without anti-androgen treatment. Everted epithelial fragments from the caput and corpus epididymis of six patients were successfully cultured in a modified RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with HEPES and androgens for up to 110 days (mean 56 +/- 28) in 5% CO(2) in air at 37 degrees C. Epithelial cells from human oviduct...

The first report of a foal born after artificial insemination (AI) with frozen/thawed semen, more than fifty years ago, was the result of insemination with epididymal spermatozoa (Barker en Gandier, 1957). Ever since, reports have confirmed pregnancies and/ or births after AI with epididymal semen, which proves the fertilizing capacity of epididymal semen (Morris, 2002; Monteiro et al., 2011). ...

Freezing of ejaculated and epididymal spermatozoa is currently a subject of interest with the purpose of establishing an efficient gene banking model for valuable animals or endangered species. Therefore, the present study evaluated the influence of different storage duration )0, 1.5 and 5 h) at 5 ºC and type of cryoprotectant on freezability of ram epididymal spermatozoa. With increasing the s...

Because epididymal secretory glycoproteins form important functional associations with maturing spermatozoa, the possibility has been explored that epididymal antigens might be useful in contraceptive vaccine development. Male and female rabbits, hamsters, and rats were immunized for several weeks with epididymal fluid, initially either with complete Freund's adjuvant, or conjugated with glutar...

  SUMMARY This study was conducted to shed light on to the factors contributing to fertilizing ability of the caput epididymal spermatozoa. In this content, it should be stated that seminal plasma am! epididymal fluid of most mammalians contains inhibitory factors connected to spermatozoa surface. To do this, components of different regions of mouse epididymis centrifuged and a given volume o...