Maturation of human spermatozoa (from selected epididymides of prostatic carcinoma patients) with respect to their morphology and ability to undergo the acrosome reaction

Spermatozoa were recovered form three regions of the epididymisof six prostatic carcinoma patients. After washing and incubatingfor 3 h in Ham's F-10 medium, with or without 5 µM A23187for the last 30 min, spermatozoa were tested for vitality byhypotonic swelling and permeated with methanol to detect theacrosome with peanut agglutinin. Whereas the extent of spontaneousacrosome reactions was similar for spermatozoa from all regionsof the duct, 17 and 28% of spermatozoa from all regions of theduct, 17 and 28% of spermatozoa from the corpus and cauda epididymidisrespectively, responded to stimulation by A23187 with acrosomereactions but there was no stimulation by A23187 of spermatozoafrom the efferent ducts. The percentage of morphologically normalspermatozoa increased stepwise towards the distal regions, withabnormalities being mostly enlarged heads in more proximal regions:they were largely absent form the cauda epididymidis. Spermhead swelling was similarly observed in cynomolgus monkey spermatozoafrom the caput epididymidis but not the more distal regions.These forms were not observed when spermatozoa were fixed beforesmearing, indicating that they were artefacts of sperm preparation.The changes in the susceptibility of non-fixed epididymal spermatozoato produce morphological artefacts and the gain in their acrosomalresponse to ionophore demonstrate maturational changes of spermatozoain the human epididymis.