Latest Sperm Stories

Are plants dependent on nitric oxide for successful reproduction? Margarida Prado (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal) has discovered that pollen tubes depend on nitric oxide (NO) to guide them to the right place to fertilise the plant. In the presence of drugs such as Viagra the plant's sensitivity to NO increases thereby influencing pollen tube bending. Prado will present her work on pollen tube redirection at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Main Meeting in Barcelona...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- For men with low sperm counts, sexual abstinence -- but only for a day -- increases semen quality. More prolonged sexual abstinence may actually reduce sperm numbers, a new study indicates."After only two days of abstinence, sperm from patients with male factor infertility initiate a process of quality degradation," Dr. Eliahu Levitas of Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva, Israel, and colleagues report.The findings are important for men...

New research has shown that combinations of chemicals found in everyday products and food have subtle but potentially damaging effects on sperm fertility. Professor Lynn Fraser told the 21st annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology today (Wednesday), that her previous research had shown that certain chemicals known to mimic the female sex hormone, oestrogen, could individually affect the correct functioning of mouse sperm, but now her new research showed...

Findings have implications for middle-aged, wanna-be dadsHealthDay News -- Older men have much more sperm DNA damage than young men do, which reduces their chances of fathering children, a Canadian study finds.The study of over 2,100 men found that injury to sperm DNA was significantly higher in men over 45 years old than in all younger age groups. Men over 45 years had double the sperm DNA damage compared with men younger than 30 years old.The research was presented Tuesday at the annual...