Abstract
IT has been demonstrated1, using freshly ejaculated bovine semen diluted with egg-yolk medium, that spermatozoa produce under aerobic conditions an inhibitor of sperm respiration. The inhibitor was afterwards identified chemically2 as hydrogen peroxide, and was shown to be formed as the result of metabolic activity of spermatozoa upon a substance present in the egg-yolk and its dialysable portion. Since then, further purification and characterization of the egg-yolk substance have been carried out ; and it has now been demonstrated that hydrogen peroxide is formed as the result of an oxidative deamination by spermatozoa of the substance isolated, which is replaceable, with the same effect, only by l-tryptophane, l-phenylalanine and l-tyrosine, but not by any of many other amino-acids tested. The inhibition which develops as the result of the above reaction can be detected not only by its effect upon oxygen consumption but also by its effect upon the reduction of motility of spermatozoa.
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References
Tosic, J., and Walton, A., Nature, 156, 507 (1945).
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Krebs, H. A., Z. physiol. Chem., 216, 204 (1933); Biochem. J., 29, 1620 (1935).
Blanchard, M., et al., J. Biol. Chem., 155, 421 (1944).
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TOSIC, J. Mechanism of Hydrogen Peroxide Formation by Spermatozoa and the Role of Amino-Acids in Sperm Motility. Nature 159, 544 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/159544a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/159544a0
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