IMR Press / FBL / Volume 3 / Issue 5 / DOI: 10.2741/A384

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
Show Less
1 Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Stellenbosch, Tygerberg, South Africa
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 1998, 3(5), 247–253; https://doi.org/10.2741/A384
Submitted: 20 June 1998 | Accepted: 25 October 1998 | Published: 15 December 1998
Abstract

The development of homologous functional bio-assay for sperm quality assessment has been a focal point of reproductive biologists; in order to provide a scientific based diagnosis in cases of fertilization failure. The availability of oocytes still remains an important limiting factor for laboratories to embark on the methodology of the assay. The use of zonae pellucidae, derived from post mortem and different in vitro fertilization oocytes, enhanced to availability of zonae. Sperm-zona binding has been illustrated to be an essential requisite during human fertilization and can be measured under hemizona assay as well intact zona pellucida 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, a highly significant correlation were illustrated to exist between the normal sperm morphology, hyperactivation, 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 intra cellular sperm injection.

Keywords
Sperm
zona pellucida
sperm-zona binding
Share
Back to top