Identification of 17α-hydroxyprogesterone, dehydroepiandrosterone and Δ4-androstenedione in human spermatozoa

K. L. Peh, R. Gunasegaram, A. Loganath, P. C T Chew, S. S. Ratnam, S. Arulkumaran

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate whether human spermatozoa contain immunoreactive 17α-hydroxyprogesterone, dehydroepiandrosterone and Δ4-androstenedione. These hormones were measured in the extracts of sonicated specimens of sperm obtained as ejaculates by masturbation from husbands of infertile couples (n = 77, age 28 - 45 years). In the range of sperm concentration between 6.9 and 262.5 millions per ejaculate, 84.0 ± 7.5 (mean ± SEM), the ranges of the steroid hormone concentrations were 1.4 19.6 nmol/L (8.2 ± 0.48) for 17α-hydroxyprogesterone, 85 - 1020 nmol/L (413 ± 25.7) for dehydroepiandrosterone and 4.5 - 130.0 nmol/L (43.5 ± 3.8) for Δ4-androstenedione. Plotting sperm count per ejaculate vs steroid concentration (Pearson's correlation), the coefficients of correlation for the respective steroids were 0.80, 0.85 and 0.91. The steroids identified intracellularly in the haploid sperm cells may, a) play a role in the molecular events associated with fertilization, and b) this information might be useful in the clinical assessment of male patients with infertile problems.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)179-186
Number of pages8
JournalMolecular Andrology
Volume8
Issue number3-4
Publication statusPublished - 1996

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