Main description:

This revised and updated second edition provides a comprehensive account of the human male gamete. Detailed overviews of human sperm production, maturation, and function - and how these processes affect and influence fertility, infertility, and assisted reproduction - are given. A wide range of new developments including proteomics, spermatogenesis, sperm-specific WW domain-binding proteins, Ca2+ signalling, DNA packaging, epididymis are explored, whilst a new chapter presents information gained from mouse genetics, highlighting how it informs male fertility research. The impact of environmental factors during pre-pubertal and pubertal stages of life is also investigated. Featuring engaging prose with chapters organized topographically, The Sperm Cell remains an essential resource for andrologists, clinical scientists, and laboratory personnel.

Contents:

List of contributors; Foreword Ryuzo Yanagimachi; Preface; 1. Spermatogenesis: clinical and experimental considerations Ellen Goossens and Herman Tournaye; 2. Sperm chromatin stability and susceptibility to damage in relation to its structure W. Steven Ward; 3. Sperm ultrastructure in fertile men and male sterility: revisiting teratozoospermia Hector E. Chemes; 4. Sperm RNA and its use as a clinical marker Meritxell Jodar, Ester Anton and Stephen A. Krawetz; 5. Role of the epididymis in sperm maturation Robert Sullivan and Clemence Belleannee; 6. Seminal plasma plays important roles in fertility Susan S. Suarez and Mariana F. Wolfner; 7. Physiological and pathological aspects of sperm metabolism Zamira Gibb and Robert John Aitken; 8. Regulation of sperm behaviour: the role(s) of [Ca2+]i signalling Stephen Publicover; 9. Proteomics of capacitation Mark A. Baker; 10. Current concepts and unresolved questions in human sperm cumulus and zona interaction Christopher De Jonge and Christopher L. R. Barratt; 11. Sperm specific WW-domain binding proteins Richard Oko, Mahmoud Aarabi, Jiude Mao, Hanna Balakier and Peter Sutovsky; 12. Fundamental role for sperm phospholipase C zeta at mammalian fertilization Michail Nomikos, Karl Swann and F. Anthony Lai; 13. Genetic basis of male infertility Amin S. Herati, Peter R. Butler and Dolores J. Lamb; 14. The Sperm epigenome Timothy G. Jenkins and Douglas T. Carrell; 15. Environmental factors and male fertility Tina Kold Jensen, Hanne Frederiksen, Katrine Bay and Niels E. Skakkebaek; 16. Male infertility and assisted reproduction Nigel Pereira, Queenie V. Neri, Tyler Cozzubbo, Stephanie Cheung, Zev Rosenwaks and Gianpiero D. Palermo; 17. Mouse genetics - how does it inform male fertility research? Laura O'Hara and Lee B. Smith; 18. Susceptibility of the testis to lifestyle and environmental factors during the life course Richard M. Sharpe; Index.