ISSN:
0003-276X
Keywords:
Life and Medical Sciences
;
Cell & Developmental Biology
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Medicine
Notes:
The minimum period of uterine exposure required by ejaculated boar spermatozoa as a preliminary to rapid capacitation has been determined after natural or surgical deposition of sperm samples directly into the uterine lumen. Twenty-four oestrous gilts were mated or inseminated close to the time of ovulation, and 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes later, the Fallopian tubes were separated from the uterine cornua. The tubes were flushed at pre-arranged intervals during a second intervention, and the proportion of eggs penetrated and activated examined by phase-contrast microscopy.On the basis of 166 eggs recovered from eighteen mated gilts, a period of uterine exposure as brief as 30 minutes, when followed by a tubal residence of approximately three hours, permitted 30.3% of the eggs to be activated; this proportion increased to 51.6% and 60.5% if the tubes were isolated 45 or 60 minutes, respectively, after mating (p 〈 0.001), as did the mean number of spermatozoa associated with the eggs. When the cornua were separated from the tubes 15 minutes after semen deposition into the uterus of six animals, 11.3% of 62 eggs were fertilized during the ensuing three and one half hours, but very few spermatozoa had reached and/or attached to the eggs in this group.It is concluded that a population of boar spermatozoa potentially capable of effecting fertilization may enter the tubes within 15 to 30 minutes of mating near the time of ovulation, and that such vanguard spermatozoa can activate a proportion of the eggs within a further two to three hours. Thus, from a temporal point of view, the major components of the capacitation process in oestrous pigs are inferred to take place in the Fallopian tubes.
Additional Material:
1 Tab.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ar.1091800406
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