Word: spermã
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...measuring the current that flows across the sperm??€™s plasma membrane for the first time, Yuriy V. Kirichok and Betsy Navarro of the Children’s Hospital in Boston, found that sperm have a unique ion pathway. The discovery allowed Kirichok and Navarro to determine the function of the cation channel of sperm (CatSper) and could potentially lead to the development of new contraceptives designed to block the protein...
According to Kirichock, data on sperm physiology has long suggested that ion channels located on the sperm??€™s plasma membrane played a key role in determining sperm motility and sperm-egg interactions, and scientists have been unsuccessfully trying to measure the activity of those ion channels since...
...sperm??€™s constant wriggling and rigid plasma membranes made them difficult targets to study using the traditional patch-clamp technique. The patch-clamp method uses a tiny pipette to delicately rupture the plasma membrane of cells to measure the flow of electrical currents...
Kirichok’s breakthrough came when he noticed a tiny bubble on the sperm??€™s tail, near the head, which allowed him to patch-clamp the sperm at that bubble...
First discovered by Clapham’s lab in 2001, the CatSper protein is activated by the higher pH environment of the female cervix. Activated CatSper allow calcium ions to flow into the sperm??€™s tail. The calcium influx, measurable as an electrical current, alters the way the flagella bends and hyper-activates the tail’s motor proteins. In experiments, mice altered to lack the CatSper protein had weak swimming sperm and were infertile...