STAPs interacts with damaged sperm plasma membranes.

ROBUSCHI, L; CESARI, A; DALEO, GR; GUEVARA, MG

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XLIII Reunión Anual SAIB.; 2007

SAIB

StAPs interacts with damaged sperm plasma membranes Robuschi L, Césari A, Daleo GR and Guevara MG   IIB, FCEyN, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (7600). Argentina. E-mail: luchi_rob@hotmail.com   The use of antimicrobial agents from natural origin in contraception has been widespread due to their potential dual benefits. Plant-derived compounds exert spermicidal activity due to an interaction with the sperm plasma membrane (SPM). We have previously isolated potato aspartic proteases (StAPs) that are able to interact with membrane of frozen spermatozoa. The aim of this work was to study the effect of membrane alteration degree (induced by cryopreservation or by Triton) in the interaction StAPs-SPM. Thereby, fresh or frozen human sperm were incubated with FITC-StAPs. The results showed that StAPs were able to interact with frozen human sperm but not with fresh human sperm. As a model of membrane alteration, bovine sperm were treated with different concentrations of Triton-X100 and then incubated with FITC-StAP1. Triton reduced both total and progressive motility in a dose-dependent manner. It is concluded that the StAP1-SPM interaction differs according to the membrane damage degree suggesting that binding is affected by the SPM structure and/or organization. These results could be used to evaluate the StAP1 use as a marker in the analysis of the insemination sample quality. Funded by UNMdP