Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Apr 10;24(8):6995.
doi: 10.3390/ijms24086995.

The Role of Sperm Membrane Potential and Ion Channels in Regulating Sperm Function

Francisco M Pinto  1 , Ainize Odriozola  2   3   4 , Luz Candenas  1 , Nerea Subirán  2   3   4
Affiliations
Review

The Role of Sperm Membrane Potential and Ion Channels in Regulating Sperm Function

Francisco M Pinto et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

During the last seventy years, studies on mammalian sperm cells have demonstrated the essential role of capacitation, hyperactivation and the acrosome reaction in the acquisition of fertilization ability. These studies revealed the important biochemical and physiological changes that sperm undergo in their travel throughout the female genital tract, including changes in membrane fluidity, the activation of soluble adenylate cyclase, increases in intracellular pH and Ca2+ and the development of motility. Sperm are highly polarized cells, with a resting membrane potential of about -40 mV, which must rapidly adapt to the ionic changes occurring through the sperm membrane. This review summarizes the current knowledge about the relationship between variations in the sperm potential membrane, including depolarization and hyperpolarization, and their correlation with changes in sperm motility and capacitation to further lead to the acrosome reaction, a calcium-dependent exocytosis process. We also review the functionality of different ion channels that are present in spermatozoa in order to understand their association with human infertility.

Keywords: Ca2+ channels; K+ channels; Na+ channels; male infertility; spermatozoa.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Zegers-Hochschild F., Adamson G.D., Dyer S., Racowsky C., de Mouzon J., Sokol R., Rienzi L., Sunde A., Schmidt L., Cooke I.D., et al. The International Glossary on Infertility and Fertility Care, 2017. Fertil. Steril. 2017;108:393–406. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2017.06.005. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Inhorn M.C., Patrizio P. Infertility Around the Globe: New Thinking on Gender, Reproductive Technologies and Global Movements in the 21st Century. Hum. Reprod. Update. 2015;21:411–426. doi: 10.1093/humupd/dmv016. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Thoma M.E., McLain A.C., Louis J.F., King R.B., Trumble A.C., Sundaram R., Buck Louis G.M. Prevalence of Infertility in the United States as Estimated by the Current Duration Approach and a Traditional Constructed Approach. Fertil. Steril. 2013;99:1324–1331. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2012.11.037. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Austin C.R. Observations on the Penetration of the Sperm into the Mammalian Egg. Aust. J. Biol. Sci. 1951;4:581–596. doi: 10.1071/BI9510581. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chang M.C. Fertilizing Capacity of Spermatozoa Deposited into the Fallopian Tubes. Nature. 1951;168:697–698. doi: 10.1038/168697b0. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources