Latest Semen Stories

UCSF researchers have identified an elusive molecular regulator that controls the ability of human sperm to reach and fertilize the egg, a finding that has implications on both treating male infertility and preventing pregnancy.The team of biophysicists and molecular biologists also broke through a previous barrier to this research by developing a method to record electrical activity of a single human sperm cell through a process called patch-clamping.The new findings shed light on a number...

Spermatozoa from the same individual cluster together, improving motility in the race to the eggSome mouse sperm can discriminate between its brethren and competing sperm from other males, clustering with its closest relatives to swim faster in the race to the egg. But this sort of cooperation appears to be present only in certain promiscuous species, where it affords an individual's sperm a competitive advantage over that of other males.The work is described this week in the journal Nature...

Stopping male mosquitoes from sealing their sperm inside females with a 'mating plug' could prevent mosquitoes from reproducing, and offer a potential new way to combat malaria, say scientists publishing new results in PLoS Biology on 22 December.The new study focuses on the species of mosquito primarily responsible for the transmission of malaria in Africa, known as Anopheles gambiae. These mosquitoes mate only once in their lifetime, which means that disrupting the reproductive process...

Faculty of 1000 reviewers examine a study from New Zealand on whether prolonged exposure to the father's semen protects new mothers against pre-eclampsia and having an undersized babyIn this study by Kho and colleagues at the University of Auckland, published in the Journal of Reproductive Immunology, 2507 first-time pregnant women were interviewed about the length of their relationship with the baby's biological father.When the pregnancies came to term, pre-eclampsia (pregnancy-induced...

Sperm, and not just the fluid it bathes in, can transmit HIV to macrophages, T cells, and dendritic cells (DCs), report a team led by Ana Ceballos at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. By infecting DCs, which carry the virus and potently pass it to T cells, sperm may play a leading role in spreading HIV. The article appears in the November 23, 2009 issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine (online October 26).During sexual intercourse, HIV-infected men transmit HIV through their...

Prototype Anonymous Donor Database In Development FAIRFAX, Va., Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Four of America's leading donor sperm providers have formed a new, non-profit association, the Association of Gamete Donor Providers (AGDP). AGDP will help donor gamete providers to share information and services, enhance educational programs and promulgate policies and activities to benefit individuals and organizations involved in all aspects of building families with the help of donor...

TAU study offers an evolutionary explanation for today's fertility problemsAbout 10% of all couples hoping for a baby have fertility problems. Environmentalists say pollution is to blame and psychiatrists point to our stressful lifestyles, but evolutionary biologist Dr. Oren Hasson of Tel Aviv University's Department of Zoology offers a different take. The reproductive organs of men and women are currently involved in an evolutionary arms race, he reports in a new study. And the fight isn't...

Scientists at Leeds and Bradford have discovered a unique "˜DNA signature' in human sperm, which may act as a key that unlocks an egg's fertility and triggers new life.Drs David Miller and David Iles from the University of Leeds, in collaboration with Dr Martin Brinkworth at the University of Bradford, have found that sperm writes a DNA signature that can only be recognized by an egg from the same species. This enables fertilization and may even explain how a species develops its own...

The editor has retracted a controversial paper published in a scientific journal that claimed to have created human sperm from embryonic stem cells for the first time. According to Associated Press, scientists at Britain's Newcastle University said that they produced the sperm in a laboratory, and they hoped that one day it could help infertile men that want to father a child.  Critics of the study said the sperm did not have the specific shape, movement or function of real sperm. ...

A business in Buffalo, N.Y., offers advanced semen analysis using sperm video transmission online to provide fertility testing. The company, LifeCell Dx Inc., known as LCDX, was founded by Lani J. Burkman, a reproductive physiologist at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Burkman provided sophisticated sperm evaluation services at Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo for 14 years using computer-assisted semen analysis. The patent-pending technologies...