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Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on December 9, 2004
Human Reproduction 2005 20(3):761-767; doi:10.1093/humrep/deh657
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Human Reproduction Vol. 20 No. 3 © The Author 2004; all rights reserved

Human sperm chemotaxis: both the oocyte and its surrounding cumulus cells secrete sperm chemoattractants

Fei Sun1, Anat Bahat1, Anna Gakamsky1, Eliezer Girsh2, Nathan Katz2, Laura C. Giojalas3, Ilan Tur-Kaspa2 and Michael Eisenbach1,4

1 Department of Biological Chemistry, The Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, 2 In-vitro Fertilization Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Barzilai Medical Center, Ben-Gurion University, 73806 Ashkelon, Israel and 3 Center for Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Sciences, National University of Córdoba, Av. Vélez Sársfield 299, 5000–Córdoba, Argentina

4 To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: m.eisenbach{at}weizmann.ac.il

BACKGROUND: Human sperm chemotaxis to pre-ovulatory follicular fluid is well established in vitro. However, it is not known whether the female's oocyte–cumulus complex secretes sperm chemoattractants subsequent to ovulation (for enabling sperm chemotaxis within the Fallopian tube) and, if so, which of these cell types—the oocyte or the cumulus oophorus—is the physiological origin of the secreted chemoattractant. METHODS: By employing a directionality-based chemotaxis assay, we examined whether media conditioned with either individual, mature (metaphase II) human oocytes or the surrounding cumulus cells attract human sperm by chemotaxis. RESULTS: We observed sperm chemotaxis to each of these media, suggesting that both the oocyte and the cumulus cells secrete sperm chemoattractants. CONCLUSIONS: These observations suggest that sperm chemoattractants are secreted not only prior to ovulation within the follicle, as earlier studies have demonstrated, but also after oocyte maturation outside the follicle, and that there are two chemoattractant origins: the mature oocyte and the surrounding cumulus cells.

Key words: chemotaxis/cumulus cells/oocyte-conditioned medium/ovum/sperm chemoattractant


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