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Human Reproduction Update Advance Access originally published online on December 7, 2005
Human Reproduction Update 2006 12(3):253-267; doi:10.1093/humupd/dmi050
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Calcium signalling in human spermatozoa: a specialized ‘toolkit’ of channels, transporters and stores

C. Jimenez-Gonzalez1, F. Michelangeli1, C.V. Harper1,5, C.L.R. Barratt2,3 and S.J. Publicover1,4

1 School of Biosciences, 2 Reproductive Biology and Genetics Research Group, The Medical School, University of Birmingham and 3 Assisted Conception Unit, Birmingham Women’s Hospital, Birmingham, UK

4 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT. E-mail: s.j.publicover{at}bham.ac.uk

5 Present address: School of Biological Sciences, Biosciences Building, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK

Submitted on June 28, 2005; revised on October 24, 2005; accepted on November 1, 2005

Ca2+ is a ubiquitous intracellular messenger which encodes information by temporal and spatial patterns of concentration. In spermatozoa, several key functions, including acrosome reaction and motility, are regulated by cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentration. Despite the very small size and apparent structural simplicity of spermatozoa, evidence is accumulating that they possess sophisticated mechanisms for regulation of cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentration and generation of complex Ca2+ signals. In this review, we consider the various components of the Ca2+-signalling ‘toolkit’ that have been characterized in somatic cells and summarize the evidence for their presence and activity in spermatozoa. In particular, data accumulated over the last few years show that spermatozoa possess one (and probably two) Ca2+ stores as well as a range of plasma membrane pumps and channels. Selective regulation of the various components of the ‘toolkit’ by agonists probably allows spermatozoa to generate localized Ca2+ signals despite their very small cytoplasmic volume, permitting the discrete and selective activation of cell functions.

Key words: calcium / calcium channels / calcium pumps / calcium stores / sperm


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