OBJECTIVE To investigate whether Chinese medicine Tai-bao could inhibit antisperm antibody in experimental mice. METHODS The experimental immunoinfertility mice were due to antisperm antibody induced by injection of human sperm membrane antigens. The experimental immuno-infertile mice used in the present study were divided into four groups including Tai-bao high dose group (46.8 g.kg-1.d-1), ...

primary antibody was omitted. The slides were observed, and images were acquired with a confocal LSM710 microscope and an Axioplan microscope (both from Zeiss, Göttingen, Germany). Tau immunostaining was detected in all smeared spermatozoa (Figure 1a). The Tau protein was located in the sperm midpiece. In testicular tissue, Tau immunoreactivity was observed in both spermatocytes and spermatids ...

The centrioles of cnidarian sperm associate with striated specializations (pericentriolar processes) during spermiogenesis. Three functions have been proposed for the role of these structures: (a) an anchoring mechanism for the sperm flagellum, (b) a signal-transmitting mechanism for communication between sperm head and tal, and (c) a contractile mechanism involved in motor function of the sper...

Sperm proteins are known to be associated with normal fertilization as auto- or iso-antibodies to these proteins may cause infertility. Therefore, sperm proteins have been considered to be the potential candidate for the development of antifertility vaccine. Some of the sperm proteins proved to be promising antigens for contraceptive vaccine includes lactate dehydrogenase (LDH-C4), protein hyal...

Aberrant sperm phenotypes coincide with the expression of unique sperm surface determinants that can be probed by objective, biomarker-based semen analysis and targeted as ligands for semen purification. This study evaluated a nanoparticle-based magnetic purification method that removes defective spermatozoa (∼30% of sample) from bull semen and improves sperm sample viability and fertilizing ab...

A total of 1021 randomly selected serum samples of adult male goats that had been screened for trypanosome infection were assayed for sperm antibodies using the immunoperoxidase staining technique. The result of the trypanosome screening revealed that 586(57.39%) goats were positive for trypanosome infection, while 435(42.61%) were negative. The assay for sperm antibodies showed that 482(47.21%...

STUDY QUESTION Does neutralization of apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase activation and recruitment domain (ASC) improve sperm motility in men with spinal cord injury (SCI)? SUMMARY ANSWER Neutralization of ASC improves sperm motility in men with SCI. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Semen of men with SCI contains normal sperm concentrations but abnormally low sperm motility....

Bovine sperm protease, 66 kDa (BSp66) is a serine protease previously characterized in bovine spermatozoa. Like other proteases, it may be present in sperm from other mammalian species different from bovine, playing a role in the fertilization process. In this study, we looked for BSp66 in hamster spermatozoa using heterologous antibodies against bovine BSp66. An immunoreactive protein was dete...

Naturally-occurring anti-sperm antibodies (ASA) in men can affect fertility by various mechanisms. Some of them are mainly related to the extent of the sperm autoimmunization (e.g., sperm-agglutination and impaired cervical mucus penetration); others are also related to immunoglobulin (Ig)-isotype (e.g., complement-mediated sperm injury through the female genital tract), or to antigenic specifi...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Chinese herbal medicine, "Hochuekkito" is widely used for male infertility in Japan. There have been many reports concerning its clinical usefulness but very few reports of in vitro experiments studying the mechanism of its effects. In addition to stimulating germ cells, we analyzed its direct effects on sperm using computer assisted semen analyzer (CASA). MATERIALS AND...