Apart from condoms and vasectomy, modern contraceptive methods for men are still not available. Besides hormonal approaches to stop testicular sperm production, the post-meiotic blockage of epididymal sperm maturation carries lots of promise. Microarray and proteomics techniques and libraries of expressed sequence tags, in combination with digital differential display tools and publicly availab...

The present study reports data on post-translational modifications in the glycosylation status during epididymal passage and significance in fertility of a 33 kDa glycoprotein of rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta), designated as MEF3 (monkey epididymal fluid protein 3). MEF3 exhibited strong affinity for N-linked alpha-D-mannose groups and O-linked N-Ac-galactosamine linkages in epididymal fluids a...

Micropuncture samples taken from the rete testis, caput, corpus and cauda epididymidis of adult rats were assayed for intraluminal sperm concentrations. The amount of fluid resorbed from the efferent duct and epididymal lumen was calculated based on the sperm concentration. Epididymal sperm concentrations increased from the rete fluid to the cauda fluid through the caput fluid. Eighty-nine perc...

The metamorphosis of an immature and nonfunctional sperm into a mature sperm capable of progressive motility and fertility is thought to be the result of a highly regulated and complex series of events in the epididymis. It is well established that sperm maturation is not intrinsic to sperm cells themselves but requires the interaction of spermatozoa with proteins that are synthesized and secre...

BACKGROUND Sperm-oocyte fusion is a critical step in fertilization, which requires a series of proteins from both spermatozoa and oocyte to mediate membrane adhesion and subsequent fusion. A rat spermatozoa membrane protein is endoplasmic reticulum protein 29 (ERp29), which significantly increases on the sperm surface as well as in the cytoplasm of epididymal epithelia from caput to cauda as th...

BACKGROUND Male mice, heterozygous for two semi-identical reciprocal translocations T(1;13)70H and T(1;13)1Wa are usually sterile. We have investigated this oligoasthenoteratozoospermic mouse model using ICSI. METHODS B6D2F1 oocytes were injected with epididymal or testicular sperm from fertile or sterile translocation carriers and from chromosomally normal fertile controls. ICSI efficiency w...

In the present study, the fertilizing potential of semen recovered from slaughtered bulls epididymis was evaluated after cryopreservation, by conventional techniques and flow cytometry methods. The cauda epididymal was dissected and sperm were recovered and evaluated for volume, sperm concentration, and membrane and acrosome integrity using a flow cytometer. Sperm fertility potential was tested...

In mammals, transit through the epididymis, which involves the acquisition, loss and modification of proteins, is required to confer motility and fertilization competency to sperm. The overall dynamics of maturation is poorly understood, and a systems level understanding of the complex maturation process will provide valuable new information about changes occurring during epididymal transport. ...

A single in utero exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) on gestation day 15 decreased epididymal sperm count in adult rats and thus was used to establish a tolerable daily intake for TCDD. However, several laboratories have been unable to replicate these findings. Moreover, conflicting reports of TCDD effects on daily sperm production suggest that spermatogenesis may not be as ...