ARTIFICIAL INDUCTION OF THE ACROSOME REACTION IN HUMAN SPERMATOZOA

This study investigated the use of human follicular fluid and pentoxif ylline as inducers of the human sperm acrosome reaction in vitro. Moti le sperm suspensions were prepared using a discontinuous Percoll gradi ent, preincubated for 3 h, divided into aliquots and exposed to variou s concentrations of non-heat-inactivated follicular fluid for 1 and 24 h and pentoxifylline for 30 min. Detection of the acrosome reaction i nvolved the combined use of a fluorescent vital stain, H33258, and flu orescein isothiocyanate-conjugated peanut agglutinin (FITC-PNA). A sho rt (1 h) exposure to follicular fluid at Concentrations of 50% or more , did not compromise sperm motility and significantly increased the pr oportion of spermatozoa having completed the acrosome reaction. Simila rly, a 30 min exposure to pentoxifylline also significantly increased the proportion of spermatozoa having completed the acrosome reaction.