Immunolocalization of proacrosin/acrosin in bovine sperm and sperm penetration through the zona pellucida

The aim of the present work was to immunolocalize acrosin in bull spermatozoa incubated for up to 6 h in capacitating culture medium (TALP-heparin), in order to study the kinetics of its release during the acrosome reaction and in vitro sperm penetration. Six replicates from semen of one bull were used. Acrosin was localized by the silver-enhanced immunogold technique using anti-bovine acrosin monoclonal antibody ACRO-C2E5, Spermatozoa thus showed the presence of acrosin only at the acrosomal region. Four different patterns were seen: (1) no labeling, (2) intense labeling on the rim of the portion of the acrosome; (3) diffuse label over the entire acrosomal region, and (4) intense label over the entire acrosomal region. Spermatozoa incubated in capacitating medium for 4 h showed that unlabeled (pattern 1) spermatozoa decreased from 72% to 28% difference that was found to be significant (p < 0.05). Patterns 3 and 4 increased from about 10% to 20-29%, (p < 0.05). With further incubation (4-6 h), pattern 1 increased while patterns 3 and 3 decreased differences were not significant (p > 0.05), The incidence of pattern 2 did not change through the whole incubation period. Sperm penetration through the zona pellucida of in vitro matured bovine oocytes (57%) or empty zonae pellucida (70.5%) increased (p < 0.05) as a function of sperm incubation time in capacitating medium. The presence of acrosin, as determined by the silver-enhanced immunogold technique, was highly correlated with sperm penetration of in vitro mature bovine oocyte (r = 0.98) and cryopreserved zonae pellucidae (r = 0.93) (p < 0.01). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.