Understanding male infertility | The secret of fertile sperm

To better understand the causes of male infertility, a team of Bay Area researchers is exploring the factors, both physiological and biochemical, that differentiate fertile sperm from infertile sperm. At the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting, which takes place Feb. 15-19, 2014, in San Francisco, Calif., the team will present its work to identify and characterize proteins known as ion channels, which are crucial for sperm fertility and expressed within a sperm cell's plasma membrane. "Any knowledge gained in this area may help create much-needed diagnostic testing and treatments for male infertility, which is in essence an idiopathic disease, because at this time 80 percent of male infertility cases can't be diagnosed or treated," said Melissa Miller, a postdoctoral fellow who will present the team's findings at the meeting. Miller works in the labs of both of her co-authors, Polina Lishko of the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), and Yuriy Kirichok at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). To study ion channels, the researchers are recording the electrical activity of sperm ion channels under strictly controlled conditions. "Our labs have characterized three ion channels responsible for regulating calcium (CatSper), potassium (Slo1), and protons (Hv1) within sperm cells," Miller said. "So far, the most well-studied is the sperm cation channel CatSper, which is exclusively expressed within sperm cells and represents an ideal target for development of a unisex contraceptive; no other cell in the body is known to express this protein." Read more ... Article: 19th February 2014 www.sciencedaily.com