Macrophage Secretory Products and Sperm Zona Pellucida Binding

Barbara M. Faber, Nasser Chegini, M.C Mahony, Charles C. Coddington
In: Obstetrics & Gynecology · 2001 · vol. 98(4) , pp. 668–673 · doi:10.1097/00006250-200110000-00025 · W4248054017
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 3 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-06 ⓘ

Macrophage secretory products, particularly TNF-α, decrease sperm binding to the zona pellucida, potentially contributing to endometriosis-associated infertility.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

In Brief OBJECTIVE To determine if exposure of human gametes to macrophage secretory products reduces sperm binding to the zona pellucida, and to determine which cytokine(s) may be responsible for this effect. METHODS A human macrophage cell line was cultured and either activated with lipopolysaccharide for 2 hours and then washed or left unactivated. Culture-conditioned media from activated or unactivated cells was used in hemizona assay. Hemizonae were incubated with sperm suspended in culture medium from either unactivated macrophages or activated macrophages, with the matching hemizona incubated with sperm suspended in control medium. Matching hemizonae were incubated with sperm suspended in unactivated macrophage medium paired with sperm suspended in activated macrophage culture medium. Conditioned medium from activated macrophages was found to have elevated levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β, and transforming growth factor-β, therefore, gametes were also exposed to these cytokines followed by the hemizona assay. After each incubation, the number of sperm tightly bound to the outer surface of each hemizona was determined. RESULTS Exposure of gametes to activated and unactivated macrophage culture-conditioned media significantly decreases sperm binding to the zona pellucida, with medium from activated macrophages inducing the greatest effect (P < .05). Exposure of sperm to TNF-α significantly impaired sperm binding (P < .05), whereas other cytokines tested had no effect. CONCLUSION These results suggest that macrophage secretory products in the basal and activated state may be a factor in endometriosis-associated infertility through the interference of sperm binding to the zona pellucida, and that TNF-α is a key cytokine responsible for this effect. Culture-conditioned media from activated and unactivated macrophages and tumor necrosis factor-|ga decrease sperm tight binding to the zona pellucida.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosisinfertility

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (19)

Cited by (3)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-08-20T06:30:07.000247+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK