Word: miffed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...chemical that is the cause of so much woe is known as macrophage migration inhibitory factor or MIF, a protein found in the immune system that seems to help sperm cells grow into strong swimmers-and that's critical. Weak sperm do not survive long in the wild environment of the reproductive tract. There may be millions of the tiny cells released, but to reach the egg they must withstand the acidic environment of the vagina, fight through a thick layer of cervical mucus and then race the other sperm to penetrate the egg's protective layer. Men are responsible...
...Abed analyzed semen samples from 68 infertile and 28 fertile males who had abstained from sex for a period of three to five days. All of the participants, the research revealed, exhibited what Al-Abed calls the Goldilocks effect: those who had abnormally high or low levels of MIF were infertile. In the ones whose levels were high, sperm were produced but quickly died; in the ones whose levels were low, sperm survived but were often malformed. Only the men whose MIF concentrations were just right produced healthy and viable sperm. The paper does not specify just how MIF...
...While this is a novel find, MIF itself is hardly a new discovery. Scientists isolated the protein more than 40 years ago and found that it played a role in causing the swelling and inflammation found in diseases like arthritis. Al-Abed and his team are hard at work trying to figure out if this or some other mechanism is what damages sperm, but they're already trying to make use of what they know so far. Within the two years, they hope to develop a home-testing kit that can help men measure their MIF levels if they even...
| 1 |