Fertility and Sterility 2014-09-01

Human oocyte-derived sperm chemoattractant is a hydrophobic molecule associated with a carrier protein.

Leah Armon, Ido Ben-Ami, Raphael Ron-El, Michael Eisenbach

Index: Fertil. Steril. 102(3) , 885-90, (2014)

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Abstract

To characterize the nature of the human oocyte-derived chemoattractant.Laboratory in vitro study.Academic research institute.Ten healthy sperm donors. Oocyte-conditioned media from women undergoing IVF treatment because of male factor infertility.Sperm samples were processed by the migration-sedimentation technique. Oocyte-conditioned media were collected 2-3 hours after oocyte stripping.Sperm chemotaxis was assayed in a μ-slide chamber according to the direction of swimming relative to that of the chemical gradient.Oocyte-conditioned media treated with proteases did not lose their chemotactic activity; on the contrary, they became more active, with the activity shifted to lower concentrations. When oocyte-conditioned media were subjected to hexane extraction, chemotactic activity was found in both the hydrophobic and aqueous phases. Known mammalian sperm chemoattractants were ruled out as oocyte-derived chemoattractants.Our results suggest that the oocyte-derived chemoattractant is a hydrophobic nonpeptide molecule that, in an oocyte-conditioned medium, is associated with a carrier protein that enables its presence in a hydrophilic environment.Copyright © 2014 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.