The effects of platelet-activation factor on mouse spermatozoa

• Main Authors: Yen-Liang Yeh, 葉彥良
• Other Authors: 陳義雄
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/62042912723228642270

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 生化科學研究所 === 93 === Regulation of sperm activity plays an important role in mammalian reproduction. Ejaculated sperm take a long journey and undergo a lot of modification before sperm-egg encounter. How sperm acquire the ability to fertilize an egg is generally termed capacitation . Finding the molecular events associated with the sperm capacitation is a prerequisite in order to unravel the molecular mechanism underlying the acrosome reaction that is essential during the penetration of sperm to zona pellucida of egg. As yet the capacitation-related events, including the rearrangement of plasma membrane lipid, hyperactivated motility, intracellular Ca2+ elevation and protein tyrosine phosphorylation, have been reported. Platelat-activation factor is a multifunctional factor. PAF shows profound effect on versatile cells. This study concerns the effect of PAF on the sperm activity. I found that PAF was able to enhance sperm motility and to promote sperm capacitation. Meanwhile, I also found that cholesterol content of sperm increased and tyrosine phosphorylation reduced after PAF treatment. This is controversial to the previous study that efflux of cholesterol took place and tyrosine phophorylation enhanced after capacitation.