Human Sperm Head Vacuoles Are Related to Nuclear-Envelope Invaginations
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Title: | Human Sperm Head Vacuoles Are Related to Nuclear-Envelope Invaginations |
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Authors: | Gómez-Torres, María José | Luna Romero, Javier | Fernández Colom, Pedro José | Aizpurua, Jon | Avilés Sánchez, Manuel | Romero, Alejandro |
Research Group/s: | Grupo de Inmunología, Biología Celular y del Desarrollo |
Center, Department or Service: | Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Biotecnología |
Keywords: | Human sperm | Vacuoles | Ultrastructure | Morphology | Immunocytochemistry | TEM |
Issue Date: | 12-Jun-2023 |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Citation: | Gómez-Torres MJ, Luna-Romero J, Fernández-Colom PJ, Aizpurua J, Avilés M, Romero A. Human Sperm Head Vacuoles Are Related to Nuclear-Envelope Invaginations. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2023; 24(12):10027. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241210027 |
Abstract: | Nuclear vacuoles are specific structures present on the head of the human sperm of fertile and non-fertile men. Human sperm head vacuoles have been previously studied using motile sperm organelle morphology examination (MSOME) and their origin related to abnormal morphology, abnormal chromatin condensation and DNA fragmentation. However, other studies argued that human sperm vacuoles are physiological structures and consequently, to date, the nature and origin of the nuclear vacuoles remains to be elucidated. Here, we aim to define the incidence, position, morphology and molecular content of the human sperm vacuoles using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and immunocytochemistry techniques. The results showed that ~50% of the analyzed human sperm cells (n = 1908; 17 normozoospermic human donors) contained vacuoles mainly located (80%) in the tip head region. A significant positive correlation was found between the sperm vacuole and nucleus areas. Furthermore, it was confirmed that nuclear vacuoles were invaginations of the nuclear envelope from the perinuclear theca and containing cytoskeletal proteins and cytoplasmic enzyme, discarding a nuclear or acrosomal origin. According to our findings, these human sperm head vacuoles are cellular structures originating from nuclear invaginations and contain perinuclear theca (PT) components, allowing us to define a new term of ‘nuclear invaginations’ rather than ‘nuclear vacuoles’. |
Sponsor: | This research was funded by the Cátedra Human Fertility: 35.90-6Q.00.01, and Departamento de Biotecnología of the Universidad de Alicante (VIGROB-186). |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10045/135232 |
ISSN: | 1422-0067 |
DOI: | 10.3390/ijms241210027 |
Language: | eng |
Type: | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
Rights: | © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Peer Review: | si |
Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241210027 |
Appears in Collections: | INV - Grupo de Inmunología - Artículos de Revistas |
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Gomez-Torres_etal_2023_IntJMolSci.pdf | 4,68 MB | Adobe PDF | Open Preview | |
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