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Molecular Human Reproduction, Vol. 9, No. 7, 381-388, July 2003
© 2003 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

Article

Idiopathic infertility: susceptibility of spermatozoa to in-vitro capacitation, in the presence and the absence of palmitylethanolamide (a homologue of anandamide), is strongly correlated with membrane polarity studied by Laurdan fluorescence

Submitted on April 4, 2002; resubmitted on February 11, 2003. accepted on March 3, 2003

A. Ambrosini1,5, G. Zolese1, M. Wozniak3, D. Genga1, M. Boscaro2, F. Mantero4 and G. Balercia2

1 Institute of Biochemistry and 2 Division of Endocrinology, Institute of Internal Medicine, Polytechnic University of Marche, 60100 Ancona, Italy, 3 Department of General Chemistry, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland and 4 Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

5 To whom correspondence should be addressed. e-mail: a.ambrosini{at}mta01.unian.it

Capacitation is a widely investigated process, which induces sperm plasma membrane changes resulting in its increased affinity for the zona pellucida. The fluorescent probe Laurdan, localized only within the plasma membrane of spermatozoa, is particularly useful to evaluate bilayer polarity in this part of the cell. According to a previous study, sperm membranes from oligozoospermic and some normozoospermic subjects (defined according to World Health Organization criteria), are characterized by low polarity (high Laurdan exGP340), while the spermatozoa from the remaining normozoospermic men show a larger polarity (low exGP340). In this paper, Laurdan was used to study membrane changes occurring during in-vitro capacitation, on sperm membranes from oligozoospermic and normozoospermic subjects. Results indicated that cells with high exGP340 show a different susceptibility to Ca2+-induced capacitation in vitro, as compared with cells with low exGP340. Palmitylethanolamide, physiologically present in human reproductive tracts, affects the time-course of in-vitro capacitation, increasing the rate of this process only in the cells with a lower membrane polarity.

Key words: fluorescence/generalized polarization/Laurdan/male infertility/spermatozoa capacitation


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