Morphological characteristics of spermatozoa before and after renal transplantation.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the changes of the spermatozoa ultrastructures before and after renal transplantation in uremic patients.


METHODS
The sperm of five uremic patients before and after transplantation and four healthy volunteers were collected and examined by scanning electron microscopy.


RESULTS
Abnormal spermatozoa were found in patients pre-transplantation; abnormalities included deletion of the acrosome, absence of the postacrosomal and postnuclear ring, dumbbell-like changes of the head, tail curling, and absence of the mitochondrial sheath in the mid-segment. After renal transplantation, most of the spermatozoa became normal.


CONCLUSIONS
There are many abnormalities with regard to the appearance and structure of the head, acrosome, mitochondria and tail of the spermatozoa in uremic patients. The majority of the spermatozoa returned to normal after renal transplantation, but a few still presented some abnormalities possibly relating to the administration of immunosuppressants.
Xu
Long-Gen
LG
Renal Transplantation Center, 117th Hospital of PLA, Hangzhou 310013, China. xulonggen@sina.com.cn
Shi
Shi-Fang
SF
Qi
Xiao-Ping
XP
Huang
Xiao-Feng
XF
Xu
Hui-Ming
HM
Song
Qi-Zhe
QZ
Wang
Xing-Hong
XH
Shao
Zong-Fu
ZF
Zhang
Jun-Rong
JR
D000177:Acrosome / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000150:complications*; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D006435:Renal Dialysis; D013077:Sperm Head / Q000473:pathology; D013082:Sperm Tail / Q000473:pathology; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure