Mammalian Sperm-Egg Recognition and Binding in vitro. I. Specificity of Sperm Interactions with Live and Fixed Eggs in Homologous and Heterologous Inseminations of Hamster, Mouse, and Guinea Pig Oocytes

Abstract

The interactions of mammalian sperm with the zona pellucida of eggs, living or fixed with glutaraldehyde, have been investigated in three rodent species. Qualitative observations of spermegg interactions in both homologous and heterologous mixtures of guinea pig, mouse, and hamster gametes revealed that 1) sperm initially attach in a loose reversible manner to homologous eggs and subsequently, stable irreversible binding is observed; 2) mouse and hamster sperm attach and bind to both mouse and hamster eggs with similar affinities; and 3) guinea pig sperm attach and bind only to homologous eggs, and attachment or binding to heterologous eggs is not observed.

Quantitative assessment of sperm binding to mouse and hamster eggs gave similar results. When the kinetics of mouse, hamster, and guinea pig sperm binding to eggs was measured using a 100-fold variation in sperm concentrations, mouse and hamster sperm showed nonspecific binding, whereas guinea pig sperm did not bind. Similar results were obtained when sperm binding was studied with living or fixed eggs.