Sperm News and Research

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The term sperm refers to the male reproductive cells. In the types of sexual reproduction known as anisogamy and oogamy, there is a marked difference in the size of the gametes with the smaller one being termed the "male" or sperm cell. The human sperm cell is haploid, so that its 23 chromosomes can join the 23 chromosomes of the female egg to form a diploid cell.

Notebook computers can have a negative effect on male fertility

US fertility experts are warning teenage boys and young men to consider limiting the time that they use notebook computers positioned on their laps, as long-term use may affect their fertility.

13 Dec 2004

One embryo as good as two to maximize the chance of pregnancy

Nearly as many women who received only one embryo at a time gave birth as women who received two embryos. At the same time the risk of giving birth to twins is minimized. These are the findings of a major study from the Sahlgrenska Academy, at Göteborg University in Sweden.

3 Dec 2004

Safe, effective and reversible alternative contraceptives for men

Most men know when their family is complete, and vasectomy remains the most effective and safest form of sterilization. Around 10% of vasectomized men in the U.S desire vasectomy reversal due to the high divorce rate in this country and other life circumstances.

16 Nov 2004

Five advanced tests provide answers to couples with unexplained infertility

For couples struggling with infertility, "all routine tests came back negative" are not the words they want to hear. With up to 15% of couples with "unexplained infertility" and another 3% struggling with recurrent pregnancy loss, advanced tests help doctors find answers for their most challenging cases.

16 Nov 2004

Novel enzyme in sperm is essential for spontaneous and independent movement

A study led by scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found that a novel enzyme in sperm is essential for spontaneous and independent sperm movement as well as male fertility.

16 Nov 2004

Sexual competition among males is evident at the molecular level, as well as at behavioral and physiological levels

In what could be termed a truly seminal discovery, researchers have shown that when females are more promiscuous, males have to work harder -- at the genetic level, that is. More specifically, they determined that a protein controlling semen viscosity evolves more rapidly in primate species with promiscuous females than in monogamous species.

8 Nov 2004

Sperm cells grown in laboratory culture

A team of researchers working with cells from mice has overcome a technical barrier and succeeded in growing sperm progenitor cells in laboratory culture.

4 Nov 2004

Australian platypus research has implications for understanding the evolution of human sex determination

The mystery surrounding sex determination of the unique Australian platypus has yielded a surprising secret: it has 10 sex chromosomes.

25 Oct 2004

Children of older fathers are more likely to develop schizophrenia in later life

These findings add weight to the theory that accumulating mutations in the sperm of older fathers contributes to the overall risk of schizophrenia.

21 Oct 2004

New techniques designed to preserve a women’s fertility after cancer treatments

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) today issued a report on new techniques designed to preserve a women’s fertility after cancer treatments by using egg or ovarian tissue freezing technology.

18 Oct 2004

Surprise finding about male infertility

CANCER Research UK scientists have made a surprise finding about the molecular basis of male infertility, reporting their results in the current edition of Nature.

16 Sep 2004

Newly completed Chromosome 5 sequence will be a powerful tool for scientists trying to understand human disease

Four years after publicly revealing the official draft human genetic sequence, researchers have reached the halfway point in dotting the i's and crossing the t's of the genetic sentences describing how to build a human.

16 Sep 2004

Sea urchins may provide clues to some baffling human reproductive problems

For many years scientists have believed they understood how closely related species that occupy the same regions of the ocean were kept from interbreeding. It turns out they were only seeing part of the picture.

13 Sep 2004

Public call for legal age of smoking to be raised helps underline dire health-care consequences of long-term smoking

A new British report commissioned as part of BBC News' Healthy Britons poll has found that 80% of people want the legal age of smoking raised from 16 to 18. This follows a recent report in the journal Education and Health on the health-care consequences of long-term smoking.

6 Sep 2004

Popular injectable contraceptive increases risk of STD's

The injectable contraceptive depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) appears to increase a woman’s risk of acquiring the sexually transmitted infections chlamydia and gonorrhea by approximately three fold when compared to women not using a hormonal contraceptive

23 Aug 2004

Gene responsible for infertility

A paper describing discoveries about the role of a gene that is important in all animals, plants, and fungi is published in the 20 July 2004 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

23 Jul 2004

Gulf war veterans are at increased risk of infertility

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine surveyed 24,379 male Gulf war veterans and a matched comparison group of 18,439 non-deployed servicemen.

15 Jul 2004

Successes in frozen ovarian tissue technology may offer hope to women being treated for cancer

Doctors in Denmark have succeeded in producing a two-cell embryo after ovarian tissue was removed, frozen, and then thawed and replaced two years later.

29 Jun 2004

Chromosomal chaos in early embryonic development is linked to abnormalities in cytokinesis and spindle formation

Abnormalities in the spindles (the bi-polar thread like structures that link and pull the chromosomes during cell division) of human embryos before implantation may be the primary reason for many of the chromosome defects observed in early human development

29 Jun 2004

Five children have been born conceived from previously isolated and frozen egg cells

Five children have been born conceived from previously isolated and frozen egg cells, Italian scientists announced today (Wednesday 30 June 2004) at the 20th annual conference of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology.

29 Jun 2004

Sperm News and Research

Further Reading

Notebook computers can have a negative effect on male fertility

One embryo as good as two to maximize the chance of pregnancy

Safe, effective and reversible alternative contraceptives for men

Five advanced tests provide answers to couples with unexplained infertility

Novel enzyme in sperm is essential for spontaneous and independent movement

Sexual competition among males is evident at the molecular level, as well as at behavioral and physiological levels

Sperm cells grown in laboratory culture

Australian platypus research has implications for understanding the evolution of human sex determination

Children of older fathers are more likely to develop schizophrenia in later life

New techniques designed to preserve a women’s fertility after cancer treatments

Surprise finding about male infertility

Newly completed Chromosome 5 sequence will be a powerful tool for scientists trying to understand human disease

Sea urchins may provide clues to some baffling human reproductive problems

Public call for legal age of smoking to be raised helps underline dire health-care consequences of long-term smoking

Popular injectable contraceptive increases risk of STD's

Gene responsible for infertility

Gulf war veterans are at increased risk of infertility

Successes in frozen ovarian tissue technology may offer hope to women being treated for cancer

Chromosomal chaos in early embryonic development is linked to abnormalities in cytokinesis and spindle formation

Five children have been born conceived from previously isolated and frozen egg cells

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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