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| POSTED 6/24/2005 |
Protein in Sperm May Lead
to New Fertility Treatments
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Researchers at the Genome Information Research Centre at Osaka University in Japan have discovered a protein in mouse sperm that must be present for eggs to be become fertilized. Because the researchers have found the same protein in human sperm, they hope that more studies of the protein could lead to new fertility treatments.
The immunoglobin protein, known as Izumo after a Japanese shrine to marriage, apparently allows the sperm to fuse with the plasma membrane of the egg and become fertilized. When the protein was absent, the sperm cell could not bind with the plasma membrane. Their findings were published in the March 2005 issue of BioNews.
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