Detection of progesterone receptor transcript in human spermatozoa

The present study, to our knowledge, is the first to demonstrate presence o f progesterone receptor (PR) transcript in human spermatozoa. The study sho ws the presence of low copy number PR mRNA in mature human spermatozoa. The PR transcript in spermatozoa was detected by reverse transcriptase-polymer ase chain reaction using primers specific for the hormone binding domain an d the DNA binding domain of the conventional uterine PR. Further, the cDNA sequence of the partial PR transcript from spermatozoa was found to be iden tical to the region spanning nucleotides 2694 to 3230 of the conventional P R full-length cDNA sequence. This study also indirectly suggests that the P R protein indeed is an intrinsic sperm protein and is not acquired through proteinaceous secretions of accessory reproductive organs.