BACKGROUND Human sperm decondense in vitro upon exposure to heparin and glutathione. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether this decondensing ability of heparin in vitro is related to structural characteristics of the molecule and to test the in-vitro decondensing ability of other glycosaminoglycans. METHODS Capacitated sperm obtained from normospermic semen samples were decondensed in...

Among internal fertilizers, typically fewer than 1% sperm survive the journey through the oviduct. Several studies suggest that the sperm reaching the ovum-the 'fertilizing set'-comprise a non-random sub-population, but the characteristics of this group remain unclear. We tested whether oviductal selection in birds results in a morphologically distinct subset of sperm, by exploiting the fact th...

There is still controversy as to how body mass index (BMI) affects male reproduction. We investigated how BMI is associated with semen quality and reproductive hormones in 166 men, including 38 severely obese men. Standard semen analysis and sperm DNA integrity analysis were performed, and blood samples were analysed for reproductive hormones. Adjusted for age and time of abstinence, BMI was ne...

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of co-Q10 and ellagic acid on sperm parameters after the freeze–thawing of Ghezel ram sperm. Twenty ejaculates from five Ghezel rams were collected in this study. Semen samples, which were diluted with a soybean lecithin (SL) based extender containing 0.25 mM ellagic acid, 0.5 μM co-Q10, 0.25 mM ellagic acid + 0.5 μM co-Q10 and no antioxidant (...

In this study we evaluated effects of surfactants on motility parameters and DNA integrity of spermatozoa of freshwater teleost fish. Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) and brown trout (Salmo trutta fario) spermatozoa were exposed to either sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS, anionic surfactant) or octoxynol 9 ( Triton X-100, nonionic surfactant). Both surfactants added at activation caused a decrease in ...

Koonjaenak S. 2006. Semen and Sperm Characteristics of Swamp Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) Bulls for Artificial Insemination in Thailand, in Relation to Season. Doctoral thesis. ISSN 1652-6880, ISBN 91-576-7263-6 In this thesis work we tested the hypothesis that tropical climatic conditions affect the quality of fresh and frozen-thawed (FT) spermatozoa from swamp buffalo bulls used for artificial i...

Background Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is defined as the loss of at least three pregnancies in the first trimester. Although the most common cause is embryo aneuploidy, and despite female checkup and couple karyotyping, in about 50% of cases RPL remain unexplained. Male implication has little been investigated and results are discordant. In this context, we conducted a multi-center prospecti...

The purpose of the present study was to examine the seminiferous epithelium cycle of Bombina orientalis using a light microscope. The cycle was divided into a total of 10 stages, according to the morphological characteristics of the cells. The spermatogenetic cells included primary spermatogonia, secondary spermatogonia, primary spermatocytes, secondary spermatocytes, spermatid and sperm. At st...