1. AFM characterization of rabbit spermatozoa
- Author
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Ierardi, Vincenzo, Niccolini, Alberto, Alderighi, Michele, Gazzano, Angelo, Martelli, Franco, Solaro, Roberto, Vol, PP IN PRESS, and Pag, T. O. T.
- Subjects
Male ,Ejaculated spermatozoa ,plasmatic membrane ,Histology ,Materials science ,Morphology (linguistics) ,rabbit ,AFM ,rabbit spermatozoa ,cell morphology ,Cell morphology ,Microscopy, Atomic Force ,Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ,Animals ,Acrosome ,Instrumentation ,Cell Size ,Atomic force microscopy ,Rabbit (nuclear engineering) ,Spermatozoa ,Characterization (materials science) ,Plasmatic membrane ,Medical Laboratory Technology ,Crystallography ,Rabbits ,Anatomy ,spermatozoa - Abstract
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been applied for determining the topological and structural features of rabbit spermatozoa. Fresh ejaculated spermatozoa were adsorbed pas- sively onto a silicon slide or by motility from suspension onto a poly(L-lysine)-coated glass coverslip and then imaged in air and in buffer saline, respectively. AFM images clearly highlighted many details of spermatozoa head, neck, and tail. Distinct features were observed in the plasmatic mem- brane of spermatozoa. In particular, head topography easily recognized the acrosome, equatorial segment, equatorial subsegment, and postacrosome regions. Moreover, AFM images revealed the presence of double belt of invaginations around the spermatozoa head, at the boundary between equatorial subsegment and postacrosome regions. All together, the collected AFM images clearly defined a detailed map of spermatozoa morphology while giving some hints on the internal struc- ture. Microsc. Res. Tech. 71:529-535, 2008. V C 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
- Published
- 2008