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. 2010 Jun 18;5(6):e11204. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011204

Figure 2. Capacitation promotes cavitation-induced release of membranes from the apical head and acrosome.

Figure 2

(A): Cavitated control boar sperm heads show only the removal of apical plasma membrane after nitrogen cavitation. (B): Unilamellar membrane vesicles recovered from cavitated membrane fraction of control spermatozoa. (C): Capacitated boar spermatozoa show after cavitation that both plasma membrane and outer acrosomal membrane are removed at the apical area of sperm head while the plasma membrane overlying the area containing mitochondria remains intact and the outer acrosome membrane remains attached to the spermatozoa at the non-apical area of sperm head. (D): Bilamellar membranes structures emerge in cavitated membrane fractions from capacitated spermatozoa. PM  =  plasma membrane; OAM  =  outer acrosomal membrane; IAM  =  inner acrosomal membrane. Bar represents 200 nm.