Post Date December, 03 2023
Experts discover the mystery of male infertility is beneficial for developing birth control drugs
A study on human reproduction conducted jointly by the Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the School of Medicine of Zhejiang University has found that there is a chloride ion channel in human sperm cells that replenishes energy for sperm. If the channel is damaged and blocked, sperm cannot obtain sufficient energy, thereby affecting fertilization and male fertility.
The research paper has been published in the latest issue of the US journal Science. Experts say this discovery not only provides a new scientific basis for humans to understand the fertilization process, but also provides a possible explanation for many unexplained male infertility, and also provides new ideas for the development of male birth control drugs.
Fertilization involves a series of strictly ordered, interactive, and coordinated development processes, involving a series of steps such as sperm capacitation, sperm egg recognition, sperm egg activation, acrosome reaction, and fusion. The capacitation process of sperm is mainly induced by hydrogen carbonate. The chloride channel is responsible for transporting bicarbonate into sperm, which in turn affects sperm capacitation, fertilization, and male fertility.
The chloride ion channel is an anion channel, and its genetic mutations can lead to cystic fibrosis, leading to blockage, preventing the transport of hydrogen carbonate into the sperm, and preventing the sperm from obtaining sufficient energy to complete the fertilization process, leading to male infertility. More than 95% of male patients with cystic fibrosis have lost their fertility. Currently, there are over 2000 known gene mutations related to chloride channels.
(Intern Editor: Cai Junyi)
