Selective binding of human cumulus cell-secreted glycoproteins to human spermatozoa during capacitation in vitro.

The results of this study demonstrate that glycoproteins manufactured by human cumulus cells can be detected bound to human spermatozoa incubated in capacitational medium containing the labeled cumulus-cell secretions. Cumulus-cell-secreted glycoproteins were labeled with a mixture of 3H-methionine and 3H-tryptophan or with 3H-fucose, and the binding of the labeled compounds to spermatozoa was evaluated by autoradiography. The binding was highly selective, involving only approximately 1% of the samples of spermatozoa used. The results suggest that the binding of cumulus-cell-secreted glycoproteins to spermatozoa may represent a final and highly selective step in human sperm capacitation.