Abstract
Sperm plasma membrane lipids are essential for the function and integrity of mammalian spermatozoa. Various lipid types are involved in each key step within the fertilization process in their own yet coordinated way. The balance between lipid metabolism is tightly regulated to ensure physiological cellular processes, especially referring to crucial steps such as sperm motility, capacitation, acrosome reaction or fusion. At the same time, it has been shown that male reproductive function depends on the homeostasis of sperm lipids. Here, we review the effects of phospholipid, neutral lipid and glycolipid homeostasis on sperm fertilization function and male fertility in mammals.
Highlights
It has been proposed that sugar residues exposed on the sperm surface during capacitation are important for subsequent binding to zona pellucida (ZP) [205]
We summarized the effects of different lipid types described so far on the events during fertilization
Each lipid class does not act in a separate manner; they rather participate together in concerted complex pathways through synthesis, metabolism or interconversion
Summary
Extracellular vesicles (EV), a type of lipid vesicle, are present in the epididymis and seminal fluid They transport some of the proteins and small RNA secreted by the epididymis or prostate to the sperm, which is critical for fertilization [9,10]. At the appropriate time and place sperm cells undergo capacitation and trigger the acrosome reaction (AR), eventually penetrating the zona pellucida (ZP) to fuse with the egg cell [15,17] During these processes, the plasma membrane lipids undergo another series of alterations [18,19,20]. Subsequent to AR and ZP penetration, the equatorial region of the sperm cell head plasma membrane is involved in the fusion process with the oolemma, the oocyte plasma membrane (reviewed in [1]). Lipids in sperm are primarily discussed, but minor contents of lipids in seminal plasma and testis are included
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