After 24 hours of storage, semen straws were thawed at 37 °C for 30 seconds to assess sperm motility, viability, plasma membrane integrity, normal apical ridge, and abnormalities (head, mid piece, and tail).
Antibody recognized acrosomal, equatorial, mid piece, and tail regions of human sperm [ 121].
The mid piece harbours the sperm mitochondria; as expected, calcium from this reservoir was not mobilized in response to the onset of exocytosis.
ODF1 encodes for proteins located on the outside of the axoneme in the mid piece and principal piece of the mammalian sperm tail, thereby maintaining the passive elastic structures and elastic recoil of the sperm tail.
Morphological alterations involved all superficial structures of sperm, in particular the plasma membrane of mid piece and neck as well as inner and outer acrosomal membranes of the acrosome indicating that morphological defects might be accounting for the immobilization of spermatozoa by E. coli.
Major abnormalities accounted for 9.5%, including head abnormalities in 4.1% (1 12%), tail bent under the head 2.5% (0 6%), and mid piece defects 2.4% (0 7%); minor abnormalities comprised 10.7% (3 31%) including mainly bent tails 6.9% (1 29%), normal loose heads 1.4% (0 7%), and loose acrosomes 2% (0 5%).
And it's great to have Martha Wainwright aboard; it occurred to me mid-piece that I'd like to see Amy Winehouse in the role.
The extensive lists of survivors is worthy, but serves the family of the reader rather than the deceased; I often ask myself when reading a NYT obit 'which anecdote or entertaining tale was excised to make space for a list of names of people of whom I have never heard?' They also often appear mid-piece, again an interruption to the flow.
The staining, which occurred all over the spermatozoa, was intense on the mid-pieces and weaker on the sperm heads.
The mid-piece mitochondria are less numerous but their overall volume is larger.
The eusperm are the fertilizing male gametes and consist, in sequence, of an acrosome, a nucleus, a mitochondrial mid-piece, and a tail.
