Table 3.
Effect of solubilised human zona pellucida providing from fertilised and unfertilised oocytes on sperm Ca2+ concentration and acrosome reaction rate
| [Ca2+] increase pattern a | [Ca2+]i (nM) | ||||||
| Oocytes | Treatment | I | II | Basal level | Peakb | Sustained phase | AR (%) |
| Unfertilised (n = 9) | hZP | 4 | 5 | 448.5 ± 50.4 | 1012.2 ± 229.7* | 1171.7 ± 262.4* | 60.7 ± 9.1** |
| Control | 383.3 ± 44.1 | 423.3 ± 41.8 | 448.8 ± 49.2 | 21.8 ± 2.7 | |||
| Fertilised (n = 12) | hZP | 8 | 4 | 416.0 ± 48.5 | 902.5 ± 165.9** | 1050.4 ± 217.4* | 61.6 ± 6.2*** |
| Control | 389.2 ± 45.9 | 378.7 ± 46.6 | 395.0 ± 38.0 | 20.7 ± 2.7 | |||
The results are expressed as mean ± SEM; The number of experiment is shown in brackets (n =); [Ca2+]I = intracellular Ca2+ concentration; AR = acrosome reactiona Number of sperm samples displaying pattern I or II increases in calcium concentration, as shown in Figure 1; b peak was calculated only for sperm samples displaying pattern 1; *, **, *** statistically different from the corresponding control: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01,*** p < 0.001 with Student's t test.