The morphology of the sperm head has often been correlated with the outcome of in vitro fertilization, and has been shown to be the sole parameter in semen of value in predicting the success of intracytoplasmic sperm injection and intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection. In this paper, we have studied whether digital holographic microscopy (DHM) may be useful to obtain quantit...

Endogenous and exogenous opioids modulate reproductive functions in target cells via opioid receptors (μ, δ, and κ). Sperm motility is a metric of gamete functionality, and serves as a suitable parameter for in vitro drug-induced toxicity assays. This study identifies the presence and location of opioid receptors in pig spermatozoa as well as their functional response after in vitro challenge w...

Redundancy-the excess of supply over necessity-has recently been proposed for human sperm cells. However, the apparent superfluity of cell numbers may be necessary in order to circumvent the hazards, many of which can be quantified, that can occur during the transition from gametogenesis within the testes to zygosis within the female reproductive tract. Sperm cell numbers are directly related t...

Most publications devoted to the cryopreservation of mollusc sperm have focused on the definition of technical protocols, avoiding the description of sperm quality after thawing. The present study investigated the effects of cryopreservation on sperm quality in the great scallop. Wild scallop were fished during the natural spawning period and conditioned in the hatchery before use. Sperm sample...

Sperm competition favors increases in relative testes mass and production efficiency, and changes in sperm phenotype that result in faster swimming speeds. However, little is known about its effects on traits that contribute to determine the quality of a whole ejaculate (i.e., proportion of motile, viable, morphologically normal and acrosome intact sperm) and that are key determinants of fertil...

Motility is an essential characteristic of all flagellated spermatozoa and assessment of this parameter is one criterion for most semen or sperm evaluations. Computer-aided sperm analysis (CASA) can be used to measure sperm motility more objectively and accurately than manual methods, provided that analysis techniques are standardized. Previous studies have shown that evaluation of sperm subpop...

BACKGROUND This is the first study to assess the outcome of sperm washing and intrauterine insemination (IUI) cycles in human immunodeficiency virus-positive (HIV(+)) men to determine any predictors of success, as well as evaluating the effect of HIV on sperm parameters. METHODS Semen characteristics were evaluated in 106 HIV(+) men and a control group of 234 HIV(-) men, and the effect of mar...

The general population is exposed to phthalates through consumer products, diet, and medical devices. The present study explored whether phthalates, reproductive toxins in laboratory animals, were associated with altered sperm movement characteristics in men. Two-hundred twenty subjects provided a semen sample for computer-aided sperm analysis (CASA) and a urine sample for measurement of phthal...

BACKGROUND Chlamydia trachomatis is responsible for a widespread sexually transmitted infection. In men, it is associated with a wide clinical spectrum causing infertility. Furthermore, C. trachomatis serovar E infection decreases motility and increases the number of non-viable sperm. No other effects of C. trachomatis have been reported on sperm despite the crucial role of DNA integrity for sp...