Measurements of membrane potential of human sperm using electrode sensitive to tetraphenyl phosphonium cations.

For the first time, an attempt was made to measure the transmembrane potential of human spermatozoa by an electrode sensitive to the lipophilic cation tetraphenyl phosphonium (TPP+). However, the assumption of a single correlation between the decrease of the TPP+ concentration in the medium and metabolism-dependent membrane potential cannot be confirmed. The participation of different processes is very likely. Artificially damaged spermatozoa showed an enhanced affinity to TPP+ (the stronger the damage, the stronger the affinity of the spermatozoa to TPP+), but there were no significant differences of the cellular affinity to TPP+ between fresh and cryopreserved spermatozoa.