Some biological aspects of semen were investigated in the Persian sturgeon, Acipenser persicus, by determination of seminal plasma indices (ionic composition and osmolality), sperm density and their relationships with sperm motility. The osmolality of seminal plasma ranged from 42.00 to 111.00 mOsmol Kg-1. The concentrations of Sodium (Na+), Potassium (K+), Chloride (Cl-), Calcium (Ca2+) and Ma...

Background: Zinc in human semen seems to play an important role in the physiology of spermatozoa. Zinc deficiency leads to gonadal dysfunction, decreases testicular weight, and causes shrinkage of seminiferous tubules. The adult human body contains 1-3 g of zinc, about 0.1% of which is replenished daily. Excessively high amounts of zinc has been reported in human seminal plasma by many authors,...

Swim-up spermatozoa from the seminal samples of non-smokers, usually not exposed to passive smoking, were treated in vitro with nicotine (NIC) and cotinine (COT) at the average levels found in smokers' seminal plasma and at levels 500 times higher than this average. This was done to evaluate the action of these drugs on sperm motility. Each sample was allowed to swim up in Tyrode's solution wit...

background: as we all know, sperm has the capacity to take up foreign dna, therefore, sperm mediated gen transfer can be an inexpensive and simple method in animal transgenesis in various species. however, there is not sufficient evidence of dna uptake by ovine spermatozoa. objectives: the purpose of the present study was to examine the uptake of human lysozyme gene contained plasmid (pegfp-ire...

Density gradient centrifugation (DGC) and swim-up techniques have been reported for semen preparation in assisted reproductive techniques in humans. We investigated whether semen preparation using a combination of DGC and swim-up techniques could effectively decrease morphologically abnormal human sperms at the ultrastructural level. Semen samples were obtained from 16 infertile males and fract...

objective: to evaluate the efficacy of in vitro sperm activation (isa) using non-liquefied versus liquefied asthenozoospermic semen samples for improvement of sperm parameters. materials and methods: fifty six oligoasthenozoospermic (oa) patients (age range: 22-44 years; mean: 32.089 years) were enrolled in this study. oa patients were classified according to type of infertility. also, duration...

AIM To 1) compare post-wash and post-thaw parameters of sperm processed with PureSperm density gradient technique and swim-up method; and 2) test the efficacy of two commonly available density gradient media PureSperm and ISolate. METHODS This prospective study used semen specimens from 22 patients. Specimens from nine patients were processed by both PureSperm density gradient and swim-up met...

The outcome of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) depends mostly on the quality of input material (oocytes and sperm) used in these procedures. The number of transferable embryos produced in these programs depends on both provision of high quality mature oocytes and adequate numbers of good quality spermatozoa capable of supporting embryo development to term. Semen samples are cellular m...

Semen for insemination, either intrauterine or in vitro, must be prepared to remove seminal plasma products and/or select the healthier population of sperm prior to use. Traditionally, a double wash technique is performed, with or without subsequent swim-up to isolate the motile fraction if necessary. More recently, the use of the SperPrep filtration method has gained acceptance, with the benef...

Abnormal reactive oxygen species (ROS) production is associated with defective sperm function. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is related with the scavenging of seminal ROS. We aimed to determine the effect of SOD activities of spermatozoa and seminal plasma on sperm quality. Semen samples from infertile couples who consented to the analyses were divided into two groups: 1) normospermia (n = 20); an...