The ability of sperm cells to develop colored formazan by reduction of MTT was used earlier to develop a spectrophotometric assay to determine the viability of sperm cells for several mammalian species. It was the objective of the present study to visualize microscopically the location of the formazan in boar sperm cells. The MTT staining process of boar sperm cells can be divided into a series...

Abbreviations: AI: Artificial Insemination; BCF: Beat Cross Frequency; PI: Propidiumiodide; ZBA: Zona Binding Assay; DFI: DNA Fragmentation Index; HZA: Hemizona Assay; SCSA: Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay; AOT: Acridine Orange Test; SCD: Sperm Chromatin Dispersion Test; ROS: Reactive Oxygen Species; VSL: Straight Line Velocity; LIN: linearity; VCL: Curvilinear Velocity; CTC: Fluorescent Chlort...

BACKGROUND The aim of the present study was to define the effect of apoptosis on sperm quality and function. METHODS The apoptotic features in sperm were assessed in 60 subfertile subjects, using Annexin-V staining for phosphatidylserine (PS) externalization and Tdt-mediated dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) assay for DNA fragmentation. RESULTS On average, about 45% of the sperm were found to...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE An inability or decreased ability of spermatozoa to bind to the zona pellucida (ZP), an extracellular glycoproteinaceous matrix surrounding egg, is one of the plausible causes of idiopathic infertility. It will be clinically useful to distinguish this condition from other causes of infertility. An assay system, investigating binding of human sperm with ZP glycoprotein may...

The primary goal of this work was to test whether the sperm mobility assay could be used to derive mathematical relationships from which predictions could be made about sperm cell function. A precondition was random sampling from a pool of sperm. This precondition was met by centrifuging mobile sperm through 12% (wt/vol) Accudenz containing the Ca(2+) chelator 1,2-bis-(o-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N...

The role of Na(+) fluxes through voltage-gated sodium channels in the regulation of sperm cell function remains poorly understood. Previously, we reported that several genes encoding voltage-gated Na(+) channels were expressed in human testis and mature spermatozoa. In this study, we analyzed the presence and function of the TTX-resistant VGSC α subunit Nav1.8 in human capacitated sperm cells. ...

background: sperm vitrification is a technique of ice and cryoprotectant free cryopreservation by direct plunging of sperm suspension into liquid nitrogen (ln2). the aim of this study was to investigate the influence of cryoprotectant free-vitrification on human sperm fine structure by msome technology and the fertility potential by zona binding assay (zba). methods: 20 normo-ejaculates were pr...

BACKGROUND Sperm DNA integrity (SDI) is an important factor in the prognosis of male fertility. Here we compare the toluidine blue (TB) image cytometry test, recently proposed by us for SDI assessment, with two other tests-the sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) and the terminal nick-end labelling (TUNEL) assay. METHODS Sperm samples from 35 men were evaluated for standard sperm parameters...