Abstract
Summary
Capacitation has been shown to be a series of reactions occurring in the uterus which enable the sperm to penetrate the outer investments of the ova during fertilization. We have observed the loss of a low mol wt acrosin inhibitor from sperm acrosomes during in utero incubation of the sperm. Loss of this inhibitor is directly related to the sperm's ability to fertilize ova and is reversible by incubation of the capacitated sperm with seminal plasma. This low molecular weight acrosin inhibitor prevents fertilization in rabbits when preincubated with the capacitated rabbit sperm used to inseminate does.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.