High potassium concentration improves the rate of acrosome reaction in human spermatozoa

Progressively motile spermatozoa recovered by swim-up method from semen of two fertile men were incubated for 24 hours in culture media containing either 4.7, 15, or 25 mM of potassium (K). Aliquots of each culture condition were obtained at 0, 1, 5, 10, and 24 hours of incubation for the assessment of progressive motility, percentage of dead spermatozoa, and percentage of acrosome reaction (AR), as measured by triple-stain technique. A total of ten experiments including each K concentration were analyzed. The results of this study showed no effect of K concentration on the percentage of progressively motile spermatozoa, irrespective of the time of incubation. The percentage of live spermatozoa was significantly greater in culture medium containing 25 mM K (P less than 0.05). There was a greater percentage of reacted spermatozoa with 25 mM K, as compared with 4.7 and 15 mM (P less than 0.05). Furthermore, the time taken to achieve 20% of AR was 2 hours at 25 mM K compared with 10.9 hours at 4.7 mM K.