Biol Reprod Keystone Symposia Conference on Frontiers in Reproductive Biology & Regulation of Fertility.
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Usselman, M. C.
Right arrow Articles by Cone, R. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Usselman, M. C.
Right arrow Articles by Cone, R. A.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Usselman, M. C.
Right arrow Articles by Cone, R. A.

Biology of Reproduction, Vol 29, 1241-1253, Copyright © 1983 by Society for the Study of Reproduction

ARTICLES

Rat sperm are mechanically immobilized in the caudal epididymis by "immobilin," a high molecular weight glycoprotein

MC Usselman and RA Cone

In many mammals, sperm are immotile while stored in the caudal epididymis and do not become motile until ejaculation. We report here our investigation of the mechanism that initiates motility in mature rat epididymal sperm. We found that an external "activator" is not required to initiate rat sperm motility since immotile sperm started to swim immediately when exposed to solutions that contributed only osmotic support. Instead, we found that epididymal rat sperm are kept fully immobilized by a high molecular weight glycoprotein, "immobilin," that we have isolated from rat cauda epididymal (CE) fluid. Our results strongly support the hypothesis that immobilin inhibits sperm motility mechanically simply by creating a highly viscoelastic environment: 1) rat CE fluid inhibited the motility of such disparate cells as rat sperm, E. coli. and rabbit sperm (which are fully motile in rabbit CE fluid), 2) the degree to which a variety of enzymatic treatments or slight dilution of the CE fluid initiated sperm motility depended only on the degree to which the treatment reduced the viscoelastic drag of the fluid, and 3) centrifugation of CE fluid simultaneously copurified the component of the fluid that immobilizes the sperm, the component that renders the fluid viscoelastic, and the glycoprotein immobilin.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Mol Hum ReprodHome page
G. Frenette, C. Legare, F. Saez, and R. Sullivan
Macrophage migration inhibitory factor in the human epididymis and semen
Mol. Hum. Reprod., August 1, 2005; 11(8): 575 - 582.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1983 by the Society for the Study of Reproduction.