Measurement of Calcium in Single Human Spermatozoa

Calcium which is found ubiquitously in the human body plays a central role in the intracellular signal transduction pathway. In spermatozoa, calcium fluxes are known to mediate a number of divergent effects, such as the acrosomal reaction and induction of hypermotility during capacitation (Yanagimachi et al.,1981, Thomas et al.,1988). A number of compounds have been shown to induce calcium influx into spermatozoa, e.g. progesterone and thapsigargin (Blackmore et al.,1990 and 1993). The channels that are involved in these processes are voltage dependent chloride channels (Roldan et al.,1994).