Human sperm aster formation and pronuclear decondensation in bovine eggs following intracytoplasmic sperm injection using a piezo-driven pipette: A novel assay for human sperm centrosomal function

In human fertilization, the sperm introduces the centrosome; the microtubule-organizing center and microtubules are organized within the inseminated egg from the sperm centrosome. These microtubules form a radial array, called the sperm aster, the functioning of which is essential to pronuclear movement for union of male and female genome. The sperm centrosomal function is considered to be necessary for the normal human fertilization process. Therefore, the dysfunction of sperm centrosome is a possible cause of human fertilization failure. However, little information is available regarding human sperm centrosomal function during fertilization in clinically assisted reproductive technology. To assess the human sperm centrosomal function, we examined sperm aster formation and pronuclear decondensation following intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with human sperm into the bovine egg using a Piezodriven pipette and ethanol activation of eggs. After human sperm incorporation into bovine egg, we observed that the sperm aster was organized from sperm centrosome, and that the sperm aster was enlarged as the sperm nuclei underwent pronuclear formation. The sperm aster formation rate at 6 h post-ICSI and the male pronuclear formation rate at 8-12 h post-ICSI were 60.0% and 83.3%, respectively. No difference of the sperm aster formation rate and the male pronuclear formation rate was observed between eggs activated with ethanol and eggs without artificial activation. We concluded that this heterologous Piezo-ICSI system into bovine egg can be a novel assay for human sperm centrosomal function, and it is possible to explicate a course of fertilization failure that was unknown until now.