This valuable reference work provides a synthesis of the latest knowledge about the acrosomatic reaction of human sperm. The acrosomatic reaction, which is a fundamental step in the process of fertilisation, is examined on both the fundamental and clinical levels. Three very recent aspects are also dealt with: what happens to the acrosome during intracytoplasmic microinjections, the usefulness of screening spermatozoa that have completed their acrosomatic reaction, and the development of contraception by a vaccine that targets one of the proteins of the acrosome. International Symposium, Collioure, France, September 1995.

Focusing on modern sperm function testing, this guide is essential in selecting sperm that will produce viable and healthy embryos.

This state-of-the-art laboratory manual includes 20 clinical protocols used daily for the investigation of the infertile male, presented with easy to understand, step-by-step methodology. The protocols are arranged from routine to advanced laboratory procedures common to clinical practice, including computer-assisted semen analysis, sperm preparation for IUI by density gradient and swim-up, sperm cryopreservation, and sperm DNA fragmentation test by TUNEL method, among others. The methodology in each protocol follows best practice guidelines made clearer by professionally hand-drawn illustrations covering most of the important steps and equipment. The authors, hailing from the world-renowned Andrology Center at Cleveland Clinic, have over 50 years of combined first-hand experience in managing very busy diagnostic and research facilities in male infertility and andrology. The book will be an indispensable resource for thousands of laboratory technologists, clinicians and reproductive professionals (andrologists, embryologist, etc.) engaged in the diagnosis and management of infertile men around the world.

Over the last decades, acrosomal exocytosis (also called the “acrosome reaction”) has been recognized as playing an essential role in fertilization. Secretion of this granule is an absolute requirement for physiological fertilization. In recent years, the study of mammalian acrosomal exocytosis has yielded some major advances that challenge the long-held, general paradigms in the field. Principally, the idea that sperm must be acrosome-intact to bind to the zona pellucida of unfertilized eggs, based largely on in vitro fertilization studies of mouse oocytes denuded of the cumulus oophorus, has been overturned by experiments using state-of-the-art imaging of cumulus-intact oocytes and fertilization experiments where eggs were reinseminated by acrosome-reacted sperm recovered from the perivitelline space of zygotes. From a molecular point of view, acrosome exocytosis is a synchronized and tightly regulated process mediated by molecular mechanisms that are homologous to those reported in neuroendocrinal cell secretions. The authors provide a broader perspective, focusing on a limited number of important topics that are essential for understanding the molecular mechanisms governing this step in the fertilization process. They also discuss molecular aspects such as the signaling pathways leading to exocytosis, including the participation of ion channels, lipids, the fusion machinery proteins and the actin cytoskeleton as well as cellular aspects such as the site of acrosomal exocytosis and the use of gene-manipulated animals to study this process.