Abstract
THE capacity of hyaluronidase to liquefy the highly viscous gel which cements the cumulus cells around the unfertilized tubal egg of the rat was described by McClean and Rowlands1, and confirmed in the mouse by Fekete and Duran-Reynals2 shortly afterwards. We suggested that the gel is hyaluronic acid similar to that in synovial fluid and, to enable its disintegration to occur as a preliminary to fertilization, a certain unspecified concentration of hyaluronidase must be established by the sperm in the vicinity of the egg. The fact that intromission of such a large number of sperm is necessary to ensure fertilization, therefore, may well be related not only to the safe passage of one or more sperm into the Fallopian tube but also, and possibly more especially, to the establishment of this requisite concentration of enzyme. Some preliminary experiments., which are described below, have now been carried out in rabbits to investigate the capacity of hyaluronidase to increase the fertilizing power of dilute sperm suspensions.
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References
McClean, D., and Rowlands, I. W., Nature, 150, 627 (1942).
Fekete, E., and Duran-Reynals, F., Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. N.Y., 52, 119 (1942).
Baker, J. R., Quart. J. Exp. Physiol., 21, 139 (1931).
McClean, D., Biochem. J., 37, 169 (1943).
Walton, A., Proc. Roy. soc., B, 101, 303 (1927).
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ROWLANDS, I. Capacity of Hyaluronidase to Increase the Fertilizing Power of Sperm. Nature 154, 332–333 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154332b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154332b0
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