IMR Press / FBL / Volume 11 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.2741/1875

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
The clinical significance of sperm-zona pellucida binding: 17 years later
Show Less
1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Stellenbosch, Tygerberg, South Africa
2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Eastern Virginia Medical School, Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine, Norfolk VA USA
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2006, 11(2), 1227–1233; https://doi.org/10.2741/1875
Published: 1 May 2006
Abstract

The development of homologous functional bio-assays for sperm quality assessment has been a focal point of reproductive biologists in order to provide a scientifically- based diagnosis in cases of fertilization failure. The availability of viable oocytes still remains an important limiting factor for laboratories to embark on the methodology of assays that examine sperm-oocyte interaction. The use of zonae pellucidae obtained from oocytes derived from post mortem tissue and failed in vitro fertilization cycles, enhanced the availability of zona material. Sperm-zona pellucida binding has been illustrated to be an essential requisite during human fertilization. This fundamental biological step can be measured under hemizona assay as well intact-oocyte test conditions. The sensitivity and specificity of sperm-zona binding results indicated the assay to be positively and significantly correlated with in vitro fertilization outcome. Furthermore, highly significant correlations were demonstrated between normal sperm morphology, hyperactivated motility, sperm creatine kinase activity and the zona binding capacity of a given sperm sample. It was concluded that andrology testing remains an ever-growing component in the work-up of the infertile couple. We enter the next millennium with many questions that remain to be answered by the hand of efficacious screening techniques and a new formidable therapy in intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

Keywords
Fertilization
Egg fusion
Female
Reproduction
Test
Egg
Sperm
zona pellucida
binding
Review
Share
Back to top