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Outstanding questions concerning sperm-epithelial binding in the mammalian oviduct*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Ronald Henry Fraser Hunter  and
Joaquín Gadea
Ronald Henry Fraser Hunter*
Affiliation:
Ladfield, Oxnam, Jedburgh, TD86RJ, Roxburghshire, Scotland, UK. Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, UK.
Joaquín Gadea
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, Veterinary Faculty, University of Murcia, International Excellence Campus for Higher Education and Research (Campus Mare Nostrum) and Institute for Biomedical Research of Murcia IMIB-Arrixaca, Murcia, Spain.
*
All correspondence to: R.H.F. Hunter. Ladfield, Oxnam, Jedburgh, TD86RJ, Roxburghshire, Scotland, UK
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Summary

Preovulatory binding of viable spermatozoa in the oviduct isthmus is widely accepted as a preliminary to fertilization, but details of physiological events associated with epithelial binding and release from binding are themselves little understood. Important questions include the potential number, distribution and stability of such sites in the caudal isthmus, whether multiple molecular forms of binding exist within a single-mated individual, and whether some sites are more favourable than others for the maintenance of preovulatory sperm viability. Also to be resolved is whether spermatozoa interact with the first available binding sites in the isthmus, whether spermatozoa from second or subsequent matings bind closer to the site of fertilization, and whether the first spermatozoa entering the oviduct are those that will be released first with impending ovulation. Ideally, future research needs to focus on a fertilizing spermatozoon monitored in vivo and not on spermatozoa destined to remain on or in the zona pellucida or in the lower reaches of the oviduct.

Keywords

EndosalpinxFertilizationOviductOvulationPolyspermySpermatozoa
Type
Research Article
Information
Zygote , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , June 2016 , pp. 389 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

Presented at the 10th Anniversary Conference of the Lower Saxony Virtual Centre for Reproductive Medicine at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, May 2014, and at the M.C. Chang Memorial Symposium, University of Murcia, November 2014.

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