Reproduction Abstracts

Objective: Considering the recent interest in the use of hyaluronan binding as a sperm selection marker for ICSI, it is becoming increasingly important to revisit and characterise the sperm hyaluronic acid binding proteins (HABPs) that are an integral part of the selection process. To this end, the HABPs in non-capacitated, capacitated and acrosome reacted spermatozoa were investigated.Design: A laboratory based investigation using immune-cytochemical an...

Introduction: During spermiogenesis, which is the last stage in spermatozoa maturation, a spermatozoa plasma membrane remodelling stage occurs which promotes the up-regulation of membrane receptors to aid the zona pellucida binding e.g. hyaluronic acid (HA) receptors.Researches have demonstrated that spermatozoa that are able to bind to HA in vitro are, in fact, more mature spermatozoa that have completed specific maturation processes and are ul...