Maturation of human spermatozoa (from selected epididymides of prostatic carcinoma patients) with respect to their morphology and ability to undergo the acrosome reaction.

Spermatozoa were recovered from three regions of the epididymis of six prostatic carcinoma patients. After washing and incubating for 3 h in Ham's F-10 medium, with or without 5 microM A23187 for the last 30 min, spermatozoa were tested for vitality by hypotonic swelling and permeated with methanol to detect the acrosome with peanut agglutinin. Whereas the extent of spontaneous acrosome reactions was similar for spermatozoa from all regions of the duct, 17 and 28% of spermatozoa from the corpus and cauda epididymidis respectively, responded to stimulation by A23187 with acrosome reactions but there was no stimulation by A23187 of spermatozoa from the efferent ducts. The percentage of morphologically normal spermatozoa increased stepwise towards the distal regions, with abnormalities being mostly enlarged heads in more proximal regions; they were largely absent from the cauda epididymidis. Sperm head swelling was similarly observed in cynomolgus monkey spermatozoa from the caput epididymidis but not the more distal regions. These forms were not observed when spermatozoa were fixed before smearing, indicating that they were artefacts of sperm preparation. The changes in the susceptibility of non-fixed epididymal spermatozoa to produce morphological artefacts and the gain in their acrosomal response to ionophore demonstrate maturational changes of spermatozoa in the human epididymis.