title: Chromosome analysis of BALB/c mouse spermatozoa with normal and abnormal head morphology.
abstract: To assess the relationship between mouse sperm head morphology and karyotype, sperm heads with either a normal or an abnormal morphology were injected individually into enucleated mouse oocytes that were karyotyped at the metaphase of the first cleavage. BALB/c male mice that produce an unusually high proportion of morphologically abnormal spermatozoa were used as sperm donors. Abnormal karyotypes were found in a significantly higher proportion of eggs injected with severely misshapen sperm heads (36-38%) as compared to those injected with normal and quasi-normal heads (15-21%) (p < 0.01). Most karyotype abnormalities were structural rather than numerical, the most common being breaks and exchanges of chromosome type in both normal and abnormal spermatozoa.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Reproductive Biology, University of Hawaii Medical School, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA. kishi@uro.med.osaka-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kishikawa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tateno
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yanagimachi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D007621:Karyotyping; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008845:Microinjections; D009865:Oocytes / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013077:Sperm Head / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000648:ultrastructure*