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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Sep 11.
Published in final edited form as: Cryobiology. 2005 Jun;50(3):250–263. doi: 10.1016/j.cryobiol.2005.02.003

Table 1.

Measurements, and calculated volumes, surface areas and ratios of surface area to volume (S:V) for head, mid-piece, tail and combined total of a sperm cell from Xiphophorus maculatus (n = 15)

Sperm cell geometry Diameter (μm) Length (μm) Mean volume (V) (μm3) Mean surface area (S) (μm2) S:V (μm−1)
Heada   1.2 ± 0.08   3.7 ± 1.2   4.2   14.0 3.33
Mid-piecea 0.86 ± 0.1   7.1 ± 0.4   4.1   19.2 4.68
Taila 0.51 ± 0.2 45.9 ± 0.8   9.4   73.5 7.82
Totalb 0.66 52.35 17.7 106.7 6.03
a

The volumes of the head, mid-piece and tail are all assumed to be cylinders.

b

Sum of the volumes and surface areas of the head, the mid-piece and the tail. Note that as long as the values of available surface area, the cell volume and the S:V are maintained as close to the original values as possible, any geometry can be used to model the sperm cell. For simplicity we assumed the X. maculatus can be modeled as a thing long cylinder of length 52.35 μm and a diameter of 0.66 μm (which results in a surface area of 108.55 μm2, a cell volume of 17.9 μm3 and a surface area to cell volume ratio of 6.06).