BACKGROUND As one of the chlorinated antifertility compounds, alpha-chlorohydrin (ACH) can inhibit glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (G3PDH) activity in epididymal sperm and affect sperm energy metabolism, maturation and fertilization, eventually leading to male infertility. Further studies demonstrated that the inhibitory effect of ACH on G3PDH is not only confined to epididymal sperm b...

A small portion of cytoplasm is generally retained as the cytoplasmic droplet (CD) on the flagellum of spermatozoa after spermiation in mice. CDs are believed to play a role in osmoadaptation by allowing water entrance or exit. However, many lines of evidence suggest that CDs may have roles beyond osmoregulation. To gain more insights, we purified CDs from murine epididymal spermatozoa and cond...

The ability of stallion seminal plasma to modify phagocytosis of spermatozoa and Streptococcus zooepidemicus was examined. Phagocytosis was monitored indirectly as the H2O2 produced by peripheral blood leukocytes after addition of spermatozoa or bacteria. Hydrogen peroxide production after addition of ejaculated spermatozoa was greater (P less than 0.01) than after addition of epididymal sperm....

The present study aimed to compare the in vitro fertilizing capacity of frozen-thawed ejaculated and epididymal spermatozoa in order to standardize the semen preparation protocol for camel in vitro fertilization (IVF). Semen samples were collected from 7 Dromedary camels by means of artificial vagina (AV). Ten cauda epididymes were obtained from slaughtered adult camels, isolated, incised and r...

Disubstituted haloacid by-products of drinking water disinfection such as dibromoacetic acid and dichloroacetic acid have been shown to perturb spermatogenesis and fertility in adult male rats. In the present study we sought to establish whether equimolar exposure to bromochloroacetic acid (BCA), a prevalent by-product in finished drinking water, is also capable of disrupting these endpoints, a...

The effect of hypercholesterolaemia on testicular endocrine and exocrine function was evaluated. Furthermore, the influence of hypercholesterolaemia on sperm quality, quantity, and fertilizing potential was appreciated. Eight mature rabbits (group A) were fed chow containing 3% cholesterol for 12 weeks. An additional six rabbits (group B) were fed normal chow for the same period. At the end of ...

In a recent Research Article by Sutovsky et al., the authors interpret their results to mean that in the normal animal the epididymis ‘...provides a mechanism for sperm quality control...’ and that ‘ubiquitinated (i.e. defective) sperm are subsequently phagocytosed by the epididymal epithelial cells’ (Sutovsky et al., 2001). This was based on observations that abnormal sperm were ubiquitin-labe...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES In this study, the harmful effects of formaldehyde (FA) on serum testosterone levels and epididymal sperm characteristics were investigated. In addition, possible protective effect of lavender oil was evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS For this purpose, 21 adult male Wistar-Albino rats were used. The rats of group I was used as control group. The rats of group II were ...

Sperm adsorbed with retrovirus particles were recovered from the epididymis of apparently normal male mice. Epididymal semen from all four mouse strains examined was positive for retrovirus (10(5) to 10(8) particles per microgram of protein) indicating that epididymal fluids and sperm may be important vehicles for murine retrovirus spread. Immunoblot analyses revealed that the banding patterns ...

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a useful technique for creating pig strains that model human diseases. However, production of numerous cloned disease model pigs by SCNT for large-scale experiments is impractical due to its complexity and inefficiency. In the present study, we aimed to establish an efficient procedure for proliferating the diabetes model pig carrying the mutant human hep...