In equine species, the co-culture with OEC-improves the capacitation of spermatozoa and in porcine the OECs conditioned medium can efficiently increase the in vitro acrosome reaction (AR) of frozen-thawed bovine spermatozoa (40, 51).
Sperm in contact with the jelly coat do not undergo an acrosome reaction involving exocytosis of the acrosomal vesicle, but in many instances they do undergo an elongation of the anterior portion of the acrosome [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 18, 19, 22 OMITTED].
One study showed that saquinavir, commonly used in HAART regimens, results in decreased sperm motility in vitro and negatively affects mechanisms that are essential to fertilization of an oocyte such as the acrosome reaction (50).
This protein may be secreted from the acrosome during the acrosome reaction (24) or be implicated in sperm-egg fusion (26) and it may modulate sperm flagellar motility (25).