ABSTRACT
Background: Freshly ejaculated spermatozoa in female reproductive system are not able to fertilize the egg. Spermatozoa first get capacitated by having some physiological changes and then become acrosome reacted to get this ability. Capacitating factors are present in female reproductive system and semen. Among capacitating factors a unique and potent signaling phospholipid is found in spermatozoa called Platelet Activating Factor [PAF]. ,Apart from the activation of platelets, PAF has numerous other effects related to reproduction like sperm motility, sperm capacitation, acrosome reaction, implantation, embryo development and parturition
Objective: It was aimed to study the effect of exogenous platelet activating factor on capacitation and acrosome reaction in normal sperms
Subjects and Methods: Twenty semen samples were collected as per WHO criterion for semen analysis from normospermic males. The sperms were separated from the seminal fluid by using Sydney IVF Sperm gradient kit. Chlortetracycline [CTC] assay was employed to assess the specific immunofluorescent pattern in spermatozoa for incapacitation, capacitation and acrosome reaction. A group of sperms incubated in sperm washing medium was compared with the group of sperms incubated in exogenous PAF
Results: The results were obtained as percentage of sperms stained with Chlortetracycline for the specific immunofluorescent pattern. A significant difference [p<0.05], was observed between the two groups revealing that the exogenous PAF significantly promotes sperm capacitation as well as acrosome reaction in the normospermic subjects