title: Male infertility associated with round-headed acrosomeless spermatozoa.
abstract: The properties of spermatozoa with round head syndrome in four unrelated patients are reported. The findings were as follows: (1) Electron microscopy demonstrated that all spermatozoa lacked an acrosome and postacrosomal sheath. (2) Acrosin activity was only 1% to 6% of that found in sperm obtained from fertile donors. (3) Phospholipase A2 activity was not significantly different from that of spermatozoa from donors of unknown fertility. (4) Electrophoresis of whole sperm extracts revealed deficiencies in major protein bands. (5) The round-headed spermatozoa failed to bind or penetrate the vitellus in the egg penetration test. (6) The rates of chemically induced nuclear chromatin decondensation of round-headed spermatozoa suggest that the acrosome content is not involved in this process.
authors.affiliation: University of Montreal, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lalonde
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Langlais
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Antaki
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chapdelaine
authors.forename: K D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bleau
mesh_terms: D000176:Acrosin / Q000378:metabolism; D000177:Acrosome / Q000002:abnormalities; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D010741:Phospholipases A / Q000378:metabolism; D054467:Phospholipases A2; D013077:Sperm Head / Q000002:abnormalities; D013084:Sperm-Ovum Interactions; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000201:enzymology
chemical_list: D010741:Phospholipases A; D054467:Phospholipases A2; D000176:Acrosin