Semen is the main vector for HIV-1 dissemination worldwide. It contains three major sources of infectious virus: free virions, infected leukocytes, and spermatozoa-associated virions. We focused on the interaction of HIV-1 with human spermatozoa and dendritic cells (DCs). We report that heparan sulfate is expressed in spermatozoa and plays an important role in the capture of HIV-1. Spermatozoa-...

The sperm acrosome reaction takes place in response to progesterone and zona pellucida. Progesterone may act on more than one type of surface receptor, of which one is a gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) type A-like receptor. Although there is direct evidence of GABA initiation of mouse sperm acrosome reaction, there are conflicting results regarding GABA-induced exocytosis in human spermatozoa. W...

BACKGROUND Although spermatozoa with normal morphology are assumed to have uniform fertilization ability, recent data show that even normal spermatozoa have considerable variation in their head shape which is associated with differences in fertilization ability. Appropriate quantitative indicators for good sperm morphology, however, remain unidentified. METHODS Therefore, in an effort to iden...

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) transduce external chemical cues into intracellular signals and are involved in a plethora of physiological processes, but knowledge regarding the function of these receptors in spermatozoa is limited. In the present study, we performed RNA-Seq and analyzed the expression of the all GPCRs except olfactory receptors in human spermatozoa. We revealed the expres...

The objective of this study was to examine differences in platelet-activating factor [1-O-alkyl-2acetyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphorylcholine; PAF] in spermatozoa between two lines of Angus beef cattle divergently selected for blood serum insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) concentration. Endogenous lipids were extracted from the spermatozoa and endogenous PAF content was determined by radioimmunoass...

Flow cytometric sperm sorting based on X and Y sperm DNA difference has been established as the only effective method for sexing the spermatozoa of mammals. The standard method for verifying the purity of sorted X and Y spermatozoa has been to reanalyze sorted sperm aliquots. We verified the purity of flow-sorted porcine X and Y spermatozoa and accuracy of DNA reanalysis by fluorescence in situ...

objective: antioxidants are essential for sperm motility. calligonum extract possesses the important antioxidants catechin and quercetin. this study investigates the effects of calligonum extract on sperm parameters and the rate of apoptosis in testes of aging male mice. methods: we initially performed a dose response test with using three doses of calligonum (10 mg/kg, 30 mg/kg and 50 mg/kg). ...

objectives lipid components of spermatozoa have an important role in its functional activity. in this study the concentration of cholesterol, phospholipid, triacylglycerol and total lipid in different subsets of human spermatozoa, isolated as three fractions by a discontinuous puresperm gradient, was determined. methods aliquots of the liquefied semen samples (n=107) were layered on top of the ...

BACKGROUND European bison is the largest mammal in Europe with the population of approximately 4000 individuals. However, there is no report of post-mortem spermatozoa collection and cryopreservation from this species and the aim of this study was to test if the epididymal spermatozoa collected post-mortem from European bison are suitable for cryopreservation and artificial insemination (AI). ...

background: globozoospermia is a severe form of teratozoospermia (incidence < 0.1%) in infertile men that is characterized by round headed sperm and acrosomeless in semen. objective: to compare the semen parameters, protamine deficiency, and apoptosis in ejaculated spermatozoa between globozoospermic and normozoospermic men. materials and methods: thirty six semen samples were divided into two ...