Does phospholipase C inhibit fusion between hamster sperm and zona-free eggs?

Further observations on the phagocytosis of Candida albicans by hamster and human oocytes

Pathogenic yeast, Candida albicans, were incubated with hamster and human oocytes for up to 21 hours in order to determine the nature and time course of phagocytosis of these organisms. Aliquotes of the interacting cells were taken at various time intervals for electron microscopic examination. Some specimens had their zona pellucidae enzymatically removed prior to incubation with yeast, and these specimens showed the most extensive interaction and phagocytosis of Candida. The zona pullucida appears to be an effective barrier to yeast, at least over the time span studied. The observations are consistent with the hypothesis of an initial attachment of yeast via a surface component to oocyte microvilli followed by phagocytic uptake into an endosome. There is no compelling evidence of lysosomal degradation of the yeast over the time course of this study; however, the oocytes appear to undergo some degenerative changes at long incubation times.

Observations of hamster sperm-egg fusion in freeze-fracture replicas including the use of filipin as a sterol marker

We have extended the observations of previous transmission electron microscopy studies of sperm-egg fusion to include those of freeze-fracture replicas showing sperm-egg interactions before, during, and following sperm head fusion with the egg membrane. Hamster eggs were incubated with hamster sperm under polyspermic conditions and were observed after a period of 5-30 minutes. After fixation, the eggs and sperm were exposed to filipin, which binds beta-OH-sterols to form visible complexes in freeze-fracture replicas. Filipin can act as a marker for egg plasma membrane wherein it is abundant, while filipin is relatively scarce in the acrosome-reacted hamster sperm membrane, found only in the plasma membrane of the equatorial segment. The earliest sperm-egg interactions are observed between the egg microvilli and the perforatorium and the equatorial segment of the sperm, and the initial fusion between egg and sperm occurs in the vicinity of the equatorial segment. At later stages of fusion involving the postacrosomal segment, a clear line of demarcation is observed between the filipin-rich egg membrane and the filipin-poor sperm postacrosomal segment, suggesting that filipin binding lipids from the egg intercalate into the sperm membrane following membrane fusion. The anterior segment of the sperm does not fuse with the egg but is instead incorporated into a cytoplasmic vesicle derived from both sperm and egg membranes. In this latter step, filipin-sterol complexes are not found in sperm-derived membranes suggesting that there may be barriers to the movement of filipin binding lipids from the egg into these sperm membranes.