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Título del libro: Pathologies Of Calcium Channels
Título del capítulo: CatSper in male infertility

Autores UNAM:
TAKUYA NISHIGAKI SHIMIZU;
Autores externos:

Idioma:
Inglés
Año de publicación:
2014
Palabras clave:

CatSper channel; Fertilization; Flagellar motility; Flagellum; Infertility; Spermatozoa


Resumen:

In 2001, two groups independently reported different components of a novel Ca2+channel named CatSper, which is expressed only in the testis and localized in the sperm flagellum. Now, we know that CatSper is a sperm-specific Ca2+channel composed of four distinct pore-forming subunits accompanied with, at least, three auxiliary subunits. Although there is no heterologous expression system to study this CatSper channel, the elimination of any single subunit ever tried in transgenic mice results in male infertility, which indicates that each individual subunit is essential for the correct channel assembly. Whole-cell patch clamp recordings directly taken from spermatozoa revealed that CatSper is a moderately voltage-dependent Ca2+channel and is activated by intracellular alkalinization and several extracellular ligands, i.e., progesterone and prostaglandin E in human spermatozoa. The spermatozoa of CatSper null mice exhibit a defect in hyperactivated flagellar motility, a vigorous flagellar movement required for fertilization under physiological conditions. In agreement with this, there are some families suffering from male infertility correlated with mutations in CatSper-related genes. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014.


Entidades citadas de la UNAM: