Abstract
An investigation to determine whether the fertilization of hamster eggs can be blocked by incubation with soluble acrosin is presented. Eggs accumulated from superovulating hamsters had the cumuli oophori removed with hyalurinidase and were incubated in oil with various concentrations of trypsin or acrosin for 2 hours. Eggs were then washed and exposed to previously capacitated epididymal spermatozoa. Acrosin preparations were obtained from hamster and ram and molar concentration determined by fluorometric titration. Pretreatment of eggs with pancreatic trypsin completely suppressed sperm penetration. An inhibition of 50% was obtained with a .2 pmol trypsin/ml concentration. Acrosin preparations also suppressed sperm penetration. Higher enzyme concentrations were required and the dose-response curve differed from trypsin. 50% inhibition was obtained with 7 pmol hamster acrosin/ml and 20 pmol ram acrosin/ml. It is thought that the acrosin present in spermatozoa are responsible for zona penetration.
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