Capacitation and acrosome reaction of human spermatozoa. An assisted reproduction approach

In this paper we briefly review the recent advances in the understanding of human sperm capacitation, fundamentally focused to give help to the practitioners involved in assisted reproduction. Sperm capacitation has been the subject of study for many years in several animal species, but during the past ten years the advances in assisted reproduction procedures have made important contributions in the progress of this topic in relation to human spermatozoa. In this manuscript we analyze the metabolic, membranal and physiological changes observed in these cells during in vitro capacitation and their relationships with the female genital tract secretions, as well as with the homologous oocytes.