No abstract

Ejaculated human spermatozoa were studied to assess their nuclear maturity. After SDS or SDS-EDTA treatment, asthenozoospermic semen had a lower resistance to decondensation than normozoospermic semen and contained more stained immature nuclei after aniline blue staining. It showed a higher uptake of ethidium bromide, specific for DNA. There was no difference in the binding of I4C iodoacetamide in the two groups. Therefore, asthenozoospermic semen could be characterized by its relative nuclear immaturity.

Human sperm are a heterogeneous population, particularly with respect to their morphology, motility, and degree of nuclear maturity. The characteristics of human sperm and the degree of nuclear condensation with variable sexual abstinence times (long, 7 days; short, 12 h) have been studied. Long abstinence led to an increase in the number of sperm and a decrease in their motility, but their morphology remained unchanged. The DNA-protein complex demonstrated by ethidium bromide uptake was unchanged, but there was a significant increase in nuclear stability upon treatment with SDS. The duration of abstinence hardly affected the degree of nuclear condensation or stability of human sperm. The heterogeneity observed is essentially of testicular origin.

A comparative electrophoretic analysis of nuclear proteins was investigated in ejaculated human semen. The results confirm the biochemical heterogeneity of nucleoproteins in sperm with normal routine parameters and demonstrate the same heterogeneity in semen with defective routine parameters: nucleoproteins comprise histones, intermediate proteins, and protamines in the two groups. Individual qualitative and quantitative differences are observed within and between the two groups. The results allow a better knowledge of nuclear characteristics of ejaculated human spermatozoa but it does not permit the establishment of a relationship between biochemical heterogeneity of sperm nucleus and decreased fertility.