SPERM INTERACTION WITH HUMAN OVIDUCTAL CELLS IN-VITRO

In this article we describe the in-vitro interaction between human spe rmatozoa and oviductal epithelial cell monolayers. Freshly obtained sp ermatozoa were added to culture dishes containing human oviductal cell s (co-culture), culture medium (control) or culture medium which had p reviously been used for culture of oviductal cells (conditioned medium ), At 0, 5, 24, and 48 h of incubation the percentage of motile sperma tozoa was determined and their motion characteristics analysed, Aliquo ts were taken to determine the percentage of acrosome-reacted spermato zoa, The spermatozoa were motile for a longer period in the presence o f oviductal cells (54 +/- 9% co-culture versus 18 +/- 3% control, at 4 8 h) and the kinetics of the acrosome reaction exhibited a different p attern, In the control the percentage of reacted spermatozoa increased progressively throughout incubation, In co-culture, there was an incr ease only at 5 h; thereafter, the percentage of acrosome reactions did not change. Spermatozoa incubated in conditioned medium exhibited a b ehaviour halfway between the control and the co-culture, The pattern o f sperm movement mas not different in any of the experimental conditio ns, Although there was no binding between spermatozoa and oviductal ep ithelial cells, the frequency of the ciliary beat increased after sper matozoa were added to the oviductal cell monolayers, These results sug gest that incubation with oviductal cells increases sperm survival, st abilizes the acrosome, and modifies the frequency of ciliary beat.