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Progesterone induces human sperm chemotaxis
C Villanueva-Díaz1, J Arias-Martínez, L Bermejo-Martínez
1Departamento de Fisiología de la Reproducción, Instituto Nacional de Perinatología, Mexico, D.F., Mexico.
Objective:
To characterize the molecular nature of the chemotactic signal for sperm contained in human follicular fluid (FF).
Design:
Follicular fluid was fractionated and several procedures were followed to the physicochemical initial characterization of sperm chemotactic compound(s).
Main Outcome Measure:
Relative chemotactic activity of each fraction was measured in a double chamber device.
Results:
Sperm chemotaxis was found to be associated with a lipid-like molecule extracted from FF. Several steroids were assayed individually and only P showed sperm chemotactic properties in dose-response curves.
Conclusions:
In this paper we present experimental evidence to support the hypothesis that P, the main steroid component of FF, is a mediator of sperm chemoattraction in human beings.