A Study of the Spermatozoa Motility Acquisition Patterns in Excurrent Duct System of the Lizard Eutropiscarinata

Abstract

The invivo study was carried out to reveal the different patterns of motility of the spermatozoa in the lizard Eutropiscarinata for the first time.  The spermatozoa from the testis, different regions of the epididymis and the vas deferens exhibited 8 different patterns of motility (a-h).  Initially the motility develops from the head region of the spermatozoa and gradually moves to the midpiece and principal piece of the tail and finally to the end piece of the tail, making the spermatozoa move forward.  Among testicular spermatozoa only a few showed slow head movement.  In the anterior epididymis, majority of spermatozoa showed slow head movement along with a few of them exhibiting faster head movement and also wavy movement in the principal piece of the tail.  In the middle epididymis a very low number of spermatozoa gained slow forward movement.  In the posterior epididymis and vas deferens all the spermatozoa exhibited forward movement. In the present study, different patterns of motility of spermatozoa reveal the stages of motility development of the spermatozoa while their transit through the epididymis and the vas deferens.  The rotating fast forward movement is the ultimate pattern of spermatozoa motility observed.  This pattern of spermatozoa movement was attained in the posterior epididymis and remained same in the vas deferens.  This type of movement was the highest exhibited pattern in both posterior epididymis and the vas deferens.