Word: sperms
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...Harvard-affiliated researchers have discovered the function of a unique protein which allows sperm to blast through the tough outer layer of an unfertilized egg and which may be the target of a future 100 percent effective contraceptive...
...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...
...CatSper is a wonderful target for contraceptives because it is only in mature sperm,” Clapham wrote in an email. “And blocking its function results in 100 percent infertility…for as long as the drug was in the body?...
...When sperm are swimming far away from eggs, their flagella beat steadily with sinusoidal motions. However, for fertilization to occur, the sperm need to be hyper-activated. Hyper-activated sperm swim with vigorous, whip-like motions that gives them the force they need to penetrate the protective membrane of the eggs. Prior to Kirichock and Navarro’s research, which was published in the February 9 issue of the scientific journal Nature, the cause of this hyper-activation was unknown...
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...