February 4, 2010

expert reaction to paper in Cell that investigates what causes sperm to start swimming

Scientists in the US have discovered a chemical switch that plays a key role in the development of sperm swimming ability and control of swimming speed.

Dr Allan Pacey, Senior Lecturer in Andrology at the University of Sheffield, said:

“Although it seems obvious that sperm have to swim in order to find and fertilise an egg inside the female body, or in the dish during IVF, we are only just uncovering some of the molecular details that the sperm use when swimming.

“This is a useful study which identifies an important ion channel that seems to trigger sperm to start beating its tail by changing the acidity of the inside of the cell. Now that we know what this ion channel is, then it could lead us to either develop a novel contraceptive for men, or perhaps find a way to improve the sperm motility for men whose sperm don’t swim as well as they should.”