Assays for Sperm Chemotaxis

One of the characteristics of sperm chemotaxis is sperm accumulation at the optimal chemoattractant concentration. However, sperm accumulation can also be caused by speed enhancement (chemokinesis) and trapping. The latter may result from a negative effect of a stimulus on motility, from a gradient-independent change in swimming behavior at a 

Two major types of assays are used assays based on sperm accumulation and assays based on the directionality of sperm swimming. Below I discuss each of these assay types in more detail. 

The accumulation-based assays for sperm chemotaxis can be divided into three main categories. 

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Giojalas, L.C., Eisenbach, M., Eabro, G., Frenkel, A., Civalero, S., H., B., Caplan, S.R. and Rovasio, R.A. (2002). Directionality-based assay for sperm chemotaxis, independent of chemokinesis and the locomotion pattern. Submitted. 

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