Abstract
AbstractCapacitation of guinea pig spermatozoa in vitro was inhibited by the disulfide‐reducing agent dithiothreitol (DTT). Even a brief treatment with DTT inhibited capacitation unless an oxidizing agent (glutathione disulfide) was present in the posttreatment medium. Precapacitated spermatozoa were unable to undergo the acrosome reaction in the presence of DTT, indicating that this reagent also blocks the acrosome reaction. Acrosome‐reacted spermatozoa were incapable of attaching to and penetrating the zona pellucida in the presence of DTT. Even when acrosome‐reacted spermatozoa were directly brought to the surface of zona‐free eggs, they were unable to bind to and fuse with the egg plasma membrane so long as DTT was present in the medium. These observations suggest that the tertiary and quaternary structures of sperm surface proteins regulated by their thioldisulfide status are of critical importance in the physiology and function of spermatozoa preliminary to and in the process of fertilization.
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