title: Isolation of a spermatozoal immobilization factor from Staphylococcus aureus filtrates.
abstract: Staphylococcus aureus isolated from the cervix of an infertile woman was found to cause complete immobilization of human spermatozoa in vitro. Only the cell culture and cell-free supernatant showed immobilization activity, indicating that the sperm immobilization factor might be released extracellularly by the organism because no activity was observed with the washed cells. Heat treatment of the supernatant at 60 degrees C for 10 min waived its immobilizing activity, indicating that the active component may be a protein. The bioactive molecule from the supernatant was purified to homogeneity by ammonium sulfate precipitation, gel permeation chromatography, and ion exchange chromatography. Sperm immobilization factor (SIF) was found to be an approximately 20 kDa protein. SIF at a concentration of 10 microg/mL was required to cause 100% immobilization of human spermatozoa after 30 min of incubation at 37 degrees C, whereas a concentration of 150 microg/mL caused immediate immobilization, and a concentration of 200 microg/mL resulted in instant loss of viability of human spermatozoa, observed by eosin-nigrosin staining. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the treatment of human spermatozoa with SIF caused multiple defects in the head, midpiece, neck, and tail region of human spermatozoa.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Panjab University, Chandigarh - 160014, India. satishvijay11@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Vijay
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Prabha
authors.forename: Tanushree
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Siftjit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.forename: Navchetan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.forename: Sushila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kala
authors.forename: Arvind
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Singh
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008970:Molecular Weight; D013078:Sperm Immobilizing Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D013081:Sperm Motility / Q000187:drug effects*; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D013078:Sperm Immobilizing Agents