The kinetics of human sperm binding to the human zona pellucida and zona‐free hamster oocyte in vitro

Abstract

AbstractIn these experiments the mean number of sperm bound to the zonae pellucidae of immature human oocytes and to the vitelli of zona‐free hamster oocytes were counted after centrifuging the oocytes through a discontinuous dextran gradient into a fixative. Sperm suspensions (107 sperm/ml) were preincubated in BWW medium containing 35 mg/ml of human serum albumin for 0 to 20 hr and coincubated with oocytes for 4 hr.The kinetics of sperm binding and sperm penetration were clearly different for the two types of oocytes in this system. Sperm binding to the zona pellucida appeared to be associated with zona penetration; when the zona was penetrated, many sperm were tightly bound and vice versa. A similar association between human sperm binding to the zonafree hamster oocyte and hamster oocyte penetration was not so apparent. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that all sperm which were “bound” to the hamster vitellus were acrosome reacted. On the surface of the human zona pellucida acrosome intact and acrosome reacted sperm were observed.These results suggest that tight binding of spermatozoa to the zona pellucida may be an important preliminary step in human fertilization. If this is true the activity of the sperm's “receptor for zona” may not be detected by the assay with zona‐free hamster oocytes.