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...

The mammalian spermatozoon has many cellular compartments, such as head and tail, permitting it to interact with the female reproductive tract and fertilize the egg. It acquires this fertilizing potential during transit through the epididymis, which secretes proteins that coat different sperm domains. Optimal levels of these proteins provide the spermatozoon with its ability to move to, bind to...

This work was designed to study how this ability is affected by different sperm treatments routinely used for in vitro fertilization (IVF) assay. In this study, boar sperm samples from epididymal or ejaculated origin were processed by three different methods: left unwashed (NW group), washed in Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline supplemented with 0.1% BSA (BSA group), and washed on a Percoll(...

We observed the influences of low-temperature storage of the feline epididymis on the epididymal semen qualities before and after cryopreservation to identify the optimal duration for low-temperature storage of the epididymis. After excision, the feline epididymis was stored at 4 degrees C for 0-72 hr and then subjected to epididymal sperm collection. When sperm from the refrigerated cauda epid...

This study was done to evaluate the effect of sperm source on chromatin integrity and ICSI outcomes. One hundred and thirteen samples containing epididymal aspirates of 57 obstructive azoospermic men and 56-ejaculated semen of normozoospermic men were included in this study. Sperm chromatin status was evaluated by Chromomycin A3 (CMA3), Aniline Blue (AB) and Toluidine Blue (TB). Fertilization r...

The viscacha (Lagostomus maximus maximus) is a seasonal South American wild rodent. The adult males exhibit an annual reproductive cycle with periods of maximum and minimum gonadal activity. Four segments have been identified in the epididymis of this species: initial, caput, corpus, and cauda. The main objective of this work was to relate the seasonal morphological changes observed in the epid...