Evidence for the activation of phospholipases during acrosome reaction of human sperm elicited by calcium ionophore A23187.

Incubation of washed human sperm with [3H]- or [14C]arachidonic acid allowed a major incorporation of the label into phospholipids, provided that the final concentration of the fatty acid did not exceed 20 microM. A further challenge with calcium ionophore A23187 of spermatozoa suspended in a calcium-containing medium led to phospholipid hydrolysis, which could account for 10-12% of total cell radioactivity. Degradation products were identified as free, unconverted arachidonic acid, occurring with some diacylglycerol. Phospholipid hydrolysis was significant after 15 min of incubation and became maximal after 120 min. It was found to be calcium dependent, diacylglycerol and free arachidonate production occurring maximally at 2 mM and 5 mM CaCl2, respectively. Phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylinositol were the most significantly degraded phospholipids after 60 min of incubation. Similar incubations conducted with 32P-labeled sperm confirmed the selective hydrolysis of phosphatidylcholine and revealed an increase production of phosphatidic acid probably due to a phosphorylation of diacylglycerol. Under the same conditions, one third of the cells remained motile and electron microscopy revealed that acrosome reaction was completed in 40% of the cells and displayed an intermediary state in 40-50% of the spermatozoa. Furthermore, a good parallelism was observed between the extent of the acrosome reaction and the extent of phospholipid hydrolysis promoted by increasing concentrations of A23187. It is concluded that calcium entry into the cells activates both a phospholipase A2 and a phospholipase C, leading to the production of substances, like lysophospholipid, diacylglycerol or phosphatidic acid, which may or may not be involved in acrosome reaction.