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Query: UNIPROT:P56851 (epididymal)
 11,273 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

An autosomal recessive mutation (ipv) causing infertility in homozygous females (ipv/ipv) because of imperforate vaginae was discovered in a line of mice selected for low lean tissue mass as a proportion of body weight. The aim of this study was to determine if the mutation could be propagated in offspring following embryo transfer of oocytes collected from mutant females and fertilized in vitro with sperm from males known to carry the gene (ipv/?). Caudal epididymal sperm were incubated with cumulus-enclosed oocytes for 8-10 hr in tissue culture medium 199 + 5% fetal calf serum + 0.4% bovine serum albumin. Oocytes possessing at least two pronuclei were transferred to recipient CD-1 females which had been mated 24 hr earlier to vasectomized males. A total of 683 oocytes was collected from 27 superovulated mutant females. A large proportion of the oocytes was abnormal as evidenced by cytoplasmic fragmentation (259/683, 38%). Seventy-eight percent (331/424) of the normal oocytes were fertilized and 181 of these were transferred to 10 recipients. Six of 10 recipients delivered 38 offspring (24 females, 14 males). Fifty-eight percent (14/24) of the female offspring displayed an imperforate vagina. The results demonstrate that in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer can be used for propagating a mutant gene that causes infertility in females.
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PMID:Use of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer to circumvent infertility caused by an inherited imperforate vagina in mice. 191 65

Researchers from the University of Missouri and the German Cancer Research Center compared sperm characteristics and sexual behavior of 32 150-day old Long Evans male rats who received doses of either 0, 5, 10, or 20 mg gossypol/kg body weight to learn motivation in seeking sexual contact with a receptive female and copulatory effectiveness in relation to epididymal sperm reserves and endocrine target tissues. Females included gonadally intact and ovariectomized rats. Even though none of the male rates experienced azoospermia after 11 weeks of receiving gossypol, significant reductions in sperm concentrations and motility occurred for those receiving 10-20 mg/kg body weight (p.01) indicating possible infertility. No changes in reproductive physiology (weight of sex organs) and sexual performance occurred between the control rats and those receiving 5 mg gossypol, but changes did occur between the control rats and both those receiving 10 and 20 mg gossypol. Sexual motivation fell as the dosage of gossypol increased. In fact, the interaction of amount and duration affected suppression. The gradual suppression of serum testosterone may have been responsible for the decline in libido. These results suggest that gossypol may indeed cause sterility, but also may reduce the libido. In addition, they show that sexual performance and motivation can differ independently.
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PMID:Search for a male contraceptive: the effect of gossypol on sexual motivation and epididymal sperm. 207 49

Scrotal sonography with a 7.5 MHz sector scanner was performed on 658 consecutive patients of our infertility clinic. The incidence of pathological findings was unexpectedly high. Forty per cent of the patients revealed pathological structures such as varicoceles (21%), hydroceles (7%), epididymal abnormalities (6%), spermatoceles (6%), intratesticular hyper- and hypoechoic changes (4.5%), intratesticular cysts (1%) and tumours or carcinoma in situ (CIS) (0.6%). Sonographic evaluation and measurement of the caput epididymidis was compared with palpation. Sonography distinguished size ranges of "normal" and "thickened" epididymides as diagnosed by palpation. Cystic structures were proven in 56% of cases with "thickened" epididymides. The sonographically determined diameters of doppler-negative blood vessels were significantly smaller than those of doppler-positive vessels. Sonography revealed a higher occurrence of varicoceles than diagnosed by palpation (76% by palpation). Only 58% of sonographically identified hydroceles and only 67% of sonographically detected spermatoceles were detected by palpation. One testicular tumour and one case with CIS were only seen by sonography and not suspected on palpation. The results demonstrate that sonography represents a valuable tool in the routine diagnosis of andrological patients.
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PMID:Diagnostic value of scrotal sonography in infertile men: report on 658 cases. 207 48

The immunological basis of male sterility, as previously described, is related to alterations of spermatogenesis or impairment of seminal plasma formation. Both may be developed independently or may be related. Acute or subacute lesions of the genital tract or gonads may be more closely related to the presence of autosensitization than are chronic inflammatory processes or endocrine diseases of the testis. Oligo- or azoospermia may reflect the destruction of cells or halting of spermatogenesis. Immobilization and agglutination of sperm cells would depend predominantly on an allergic reaction that originates in the adnexal glands. Antibodies against testis do not affect adnexal glands but may immobilize epididymal spermatozoa, whereas antiseminal plasma antibodies react only with adnexal glands and seminal spermatozoa, but not with testicular cells. The pathogenic role of detectable antispermatic antibodies in sterile male or female patients are not sufficiently clarified. Their presence apparently correlate with unexplained cases of infertility, but this does not necessarily mean that they are specifically responsible for this abnormality; furthermore, they might be only an epiphenomenon of the immunological process involved.
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PMID:Immunologic studies of male infertility. 209 86

The literature pertaining to epididymal proteins and their functions in fertilization is reviewed. Animal studies have indicated that specific epididymal proteins may be involved in aspects of sperm motility, sperm-zona binding and the acrosome reaction. If analogous proteins in the human exist, use could be made of them in the andrology clinic. Currently, only one specific epididymal protein (alpha-glucosidase) is routinely measured for semen analysis. Glucosidase secretion, in addition to reflecting inflammation of the organ, is used in conjunction with other markers of human fertility to identify patients with ductal occlusion for whom bypass operations may be useful therapy. Glucosidase inhibitors have been used to improve the assay, by establishing true semen blank values, and to quantify histochemical activity in frozen tissue sections. From its localization in the human corpus and cauda epididymidis, neutral glucosidase can not be used to identify occlusion in the proximal regions of the duct. Other proteins may be valuable markers of these regions. In the future, other specific proteins of epididymal origin found in seminal fluid could well illuminate dysfunction of the organ in cases of infertility or be end-points of the disruptive action of drugs aimed at the epididymis.
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PMID:Secretory proteins from the epididymis and their clinical relevance. 213 67

Ethane dimethanesulfonate (EDS), a Leydig cell toxicant which results in transient infertility, was used in a 4 day postexposure experimental protocol designed to identify any effects this compound might exert on the epididymis. The techniques of efferent duct ligation and testosterone (T) implantation were used to negate the role of testicular effects on the epididymal parameters. Numerous evaluations were performed including light and electron microscopy, computer assisted sperm motion analyses, and electrophoresis of sperm membrane proteins. EDS was shown to affect the epididymis in a dose-dependent fashion. The action of EDS on the epididymis is in part due to Leydig cell cytotoxicity and the resulting decrease in circulating androgen since T implantation prevented some of the changes in sperm proteins and motility. However, neither efferent duct ligation nor T implantation prevented the formation of sperm granulomas in the caput epididymidis, the distinct morphological alterations of the corpus epididymidis, the modification of certain sperm membrane proteins, or the decrease in the progressive motility and velocity of sperm following EDS treatment. Although we cannot prove these effects of EDS are due to a direct action on the epididymis, it is now clear that EDS has a distinct action on the epididymis which is unrelated to circulating T or testicular fluid.
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PMID:Multiple effects of ethane dimethanesulfonate on the epididymis of adult rats. 217 Nov 57

Glucosidase (alpha G) activity was measured in sperm free seminal plasma from 1200 patients consulting for primary infertility, in whom clinical examination of epididymides revealed some abnormalities and histories of genital infections. They constituted the group with epididymal pathology (P) that was compared with a reference group (R) of 246 men without any epididymal pathology. The distribution of alpha G was significantly different between the two groups, even if we considered only the subjects in group P with normal sperm count (PN: 353 men: p less than 10(-6). 15.9% of subjects in group PN exhibited alpha G values as low as vasectomized men, versus 1.2% in group R. A linear relationship was established between alpha G and sperm content in both groups, but alpha G activities were systematically lower in group P (y = 0.19 x + 64) than in group R (y = 0.30 x + 86). There was no correlation between alpha G and the percent of sperm motility. On the contrary, we found statistically more clinical epididymal abnormalities in cases of decreased alpha G activity than in cases of normal alpha G activity (p less than .01).
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PMID:Seminal alpha-glucosidase activity as a marker of epididymal pathology in nonazoospermic men consulting for infertility. 220 Jul 70

Supernatants from mouse in vitro fertilized (IVF) oocyte cultures may suppress in vitro lymphocyte proliferation stimulated by concanavalin A (Sigma, St. Louis, MO). Supernatants conditioned by incubation with mouse epididymal sperm alone were even more inhibitory. Thin-layer chromatography suggested the polyamines spermine in sperm and spermine plus spermidine in IVF embryo supernatants were responsible. Putrescine was not suppressive. In vitro fertilized oocytes from old CBA/J-strain mice (greater than 20 weeks) that suffer age onset infertility lacked suppression and manifest cleavage arrest that could be partially reversed by adding spermine to the cultures. The failure of IVF oocytes to produce adequate quantities of polyamines could lead to failure of implantation due to division arrest. A possible in vivo role of polyamines as immunosuppressor factors is discussed.
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PMID:Analysis of immunosuppressive molecules associated with murine in vitro fertilized embryos. 224 43

Bilateral vasa aplasia is considered an invariable finding in cystic fibrosis, but such patients are rarely seen in male infertility clinics. The improved survival beyond 20 years of age is likely to change this. In a clinical study of a group of male cystics the vasa were absent in 8 of 11 boys and epididymal abnormalities were palpable in the majority. The main cause of infertility appears to be mechanical obstruction. Whether the absence is due to a primary failure of mesonephric duct development or secondary to luminal obstruction and subsequent atrophy is not known.
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PMID:Vasa aplasia and cystic fibrosis. 224 27

Intraluminal fluid movement rate was measured in four regions of the rat epididymis. The fastest flow occurred in the proximal caput epididymis (18.5 +/- 3.7 mm/hour) and the slowest in the distal cauda (2.5 +/- 0.5 mm/hour). Vasectomy significantly reduced caput fluid flow rates unless a sperm granuloma was present at the vasectomy site. Thirty days after vasovasostomy, caput fluid movement remained reduced in animals unless a granuloma was present. Failures of this or other aspects of epididymal biology to return to normal after vasovasostomy could play a role in the frequent infertility which persists after the operation.
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PMID:Fluid movement in the lumen of the rat epididymis: effect of vasectomy and subsequent vasovasostomy. 225 75


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