Effects of pH on the reactivation of human spermatozoa demembranated with Triton X-100.

The aim of this work was to study the role of different parameters involved in the motility of human spermatozoa. Human spermatozoa were totally demembranated with 0.05% Triton X-100, and the demembranation was checked using electron microscopy. We have shown that, with a concentration of ATP-Mg lower than 2 mM, a pH effect was observed with a dose-dependent motility reactivation at pH 7.1, with 14% +/- 2.0% motile cells at 1 mM ATP-Mg and a straight line velocity (VSL) of 12.0 +/- 1.4 microns/sec. However, at pH 7.8, more than 65% of the spermatozoa were reactivated with as low as 0.02 mM ATP-Mg and 77.8% +/- 2.5% of them were motile at 1 mM ATP-Mg and had a VSL of 23.4 +/- 3.9 microns/sec. The depletion of free calcium by the addition of 0.5 mM EGTA in the reactivation medium (RM) improved the percentage of motile cells and the VSL most markedly at low ATP-Mg and low pH. If no MgSO4 was added in RM, cells were not motile at pH 7.8, but 30-40% reactivated at pH 7.1. If 5 mM Ca2+ was added to the RM, up to 88% of the cells became reactivated at both pHs, but the beat frequencies were very low, suggesting different mechanisms of reactivation when Mg2+ or when Ca2+ is present in the RM.