A unique characteristic of mammalian spermatozoa is that, upon ejaculation, they are unable to recognize and bind to an ovulated oocyte. These functional attributes are only realized following the cells' ascent of the female reproductive tract whereupon they undergo a myriad of biochemical and biophysical changes collectively referred to as 'capacitation'. We have previously shown that this fun...

OBJECTIVE One of causes of male infertility is reduced sperm motility. It turns out that the reduced efficiency of the mitochondrial respiratory activity may play a role in the development of this disorder. The aim of our study was to comprehensively determine mitochondrial respiratory activity of sperm with normal and reduced motility. DESIGN Prospective study. SETTING Department of Histol...

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...

Applications of nanowires into future generation nanodevices require a complete understanding of the mechanical properties of the nanowires. A great research effort has been made in the past two decades to understand the deformation physics and mechanical behaviors of nanowires, and to interpret the discrepancies between experimental measurements and theoretical predictions. This review focused...

The acrosome is a large secretory vesicle of the sperm head that carries enzymes responsible for the digestion of the oocyte's investments. The event leads to sperm penetration and allows fertilization to occur. Release of the acrosomal enzymes is mediated by the interaction between sperm acrosomal and plasma membranes (acrosome reaction). Biochemical characterization of the acrosomal membrane ...

In most animals, female meiosis completes only after fertilization. Sperm entry has been implicated in providing a signal for the initiation of the final meiotic processes; however, a maternal component required for this process has not been previously identified. We report the characterization of a novel family of three highly similar paralogs (memi-1, memi-2, memi-3) that encode oocyte-specif...

Thioredoxins (Trx) are small ubiquitous proteins that participate in different cellular processes via redox-mediated reactions. We report here the identification and characterization of a novel member of the thioredoxin family in humans, named Sptrx (sperm-specific trx), the first with a tissue-specific distribution, located exclusively in spermatozoa. Sptrx open reading frame encodes for a pro...