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. 2023 Dec 21;12:RP92769. doi: 10.7554/eLife.92769

Figure 1. Morphological and ultrastructural defects in spermatozoa from the infertile patient.

Figure 1.

(A, B) Papanicolaou staining and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results showed aberrant spermatozoa morphologies in the infertile patient. Spermatozoa from the patient displayed defective sperm flagella, including absent, short, coiled, and bent flagella. Notably, sperm decapitation was also observed. The red arrowheads indicate the sperm-head connecting piece. Scale bars, 5 μm. (C) Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses of the spermatozoa from a healthy control and the infertile patient. Deformed sperm heads, defects of the connecting piece (missing or defective PC and Sc), and abnormalities of the flagella (disorganized arrangements and/or absence of CPs, DMTs, and ODFs) were observed in the patient’s spermatozoa. PC, proximal centriole; Sc, segmented column; Bp, basal plate; CP, central-pair microtubule; ODF, outer dense fibre; DMT, doublet microtubules. Scale bars, 100 nm. All experiments were repeated three times with similar results.