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1 Department of Physiology;
Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong
Kong, Hong Kong
2 Department
of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital,
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Studies in animals indicate that epididymal sperm
maturation requires the secretion of an epididymal
protein that binds to the sperm surface. The possibility
that this also occurs in man has been explored in the
present study of one patient who was treated for bilateral obstruction of the cauda epididymis by epididymovasostomy. The patient's ejaculates obtained up
to 18 months after surgery contained immotile sperm.
Analysis of proteins in the seminal plasma revealed
that the semen was deficient in a 38,000 dalton protein found in seminal plasma of normal fertile men
and in epididymal cytosol of patients with carcinoma of
the prostate. This 38,000 dalton protein also was found
in sperm of normal men, but was absent in sperm of the
patient. This observation supports the possibility that
an epididymal protein coats the sperm surface during
epididymal transit in man as well as in numerous other
species.
Key words: human epididymis, specific proteins, sperm motility, epididymovasostomy
Submitted on May 26, 1981
Revised on November 23, 1981
Accepted on January 27, 1982
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