DIFFERENCES IN HUMMAN AND MURINE SPERM CHROMATIN DECONDENSATION

SÁNCHEZ MELISA; ROMANATO MARINA; JULIANELLI VANINA; CALVO JUAN CARLOS; FONTANA VANINA ANDREA

Buenos Aires

Jornada; XII Jornadas Multidisciplinarias de la Sociedad Argentina de Biología; 2010

Sociedad Argentina de Biologia

Heparan sulfate (HS) and glutathione (GSH) decondense human spermatozoain vitro. The presence of HS has been demonstrated in mouseoocytes, but the details of murine sperm decondensation are stillunknown. The aim of this study was to compare human and murinesperm decondensation. Cauda epidydimal sperm from 60-90 day oldCF1 mice were capacitated for 2 h at 37°C and decondensed with 10mM GSH + heparin (Hep), dermatan sulfate (DS), chondroitin sulfate(CS) (46 μM) or 2 μM hyaluronic acid (HA) for 15, 30, 45 and60 min.. The % sperm decondensation was determined by phase contrastmicroscopy. Total decondensation was higher in murine thanhuman sperm, for both DS and Hep: 68 + 3% vs 10 + 1% (p<0.001)for DS and 90 vs 22% for Hep. CS and HA had no decondensingactivity in either species. Murine decondensation kinetics was similarfor Hep and DS. Hep decondensation kinetics was faster for humanthan mouse sperm (t1/2 = 15 vs 21 min). Results show that Hepdecondensation kinetics and DS decondensing activity differ in murineand human spermatozoa.