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Sperm Maturation and Oocyte Interaction

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Manual on Assisted Reproduction

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Abstract

Testicular spermatozoa are not fully differentiated cells and must undergo a process of biochemical maturation before they gain the capacity to fertilize the ovum. The fact that viable human pregnancies can be generated following the direct injection of testicular spermatozoa, and even spermatids, into the ooplasm, indicates that this maturation process does not involve any genomic change [1]. The haploid genetic material carried in the sperm head must be fully imprinted and competent to orchestrate normal embryonic development by the beginning of spermiogenesis. Similarly, the sperm centriole that in the human, if not the mouse, is needed to organize cell division in the zygote, must be fully differentiated and functional by the spermatid stage of spermatogenesis [2]. Thus the maturation that testicular spermatozoa must undergo before they can acquire the capacity to fertilize the ovum must only involve those attributes of sperm biology needed to deliver the sperm nucleus and centriole into the cytoplasm of the oocyte.

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Authors
  1. R. J. Aitken
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine, University Women’s Hospital, Voßstrasse 9, 69115, Heidelberg, Germany

    Thomas Rabe (Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c.) & Benno Runnebaum (Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c.) (Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c.) &  (Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c.)

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical University Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538, Lübeck, Germany

    Klaus Diedrich (Prof. Dr. med.) (Prof. Dr. med.)

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Aitken, R.J. (1997). Sperm Maturation and Oocyte Interaction. In: Rabe, T., Diedrich, K., Runnebaum, B. (eds) Manual on Assisted Reproduction. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-00763-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-00763-1_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-00765-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-00763-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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