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Abstract
Decondensation of mammalian epididymal spermatozoa nuclei has been induced by exposure of intact spermatozoa to heparin, including those species in which ejaculated sperm were not susceptible to this treatment. This process occurred in the absence of any disulfide bond cleaving reactant. Swelling of caput epididymal spermatozoa nuclei commenced about 30 min after the addition of heparin, reaching 88% in rat, 33% in rabbit, 26% in pig, and 62% in bull of swelled nuclei after 6 hr of incubation at 37°C with 5000 USP of heparin per ml. Corpus epididymal spermatozoa nuclei of rat and rabbit underwent decondensation at 50°C reaching 24% and 22% of swelled nuclei, respectively, after 6 hr of incubation. The nuclei of the sperm cells of pig and bull from this epididymal region remained highly condensed as well as the nuclei of the cauda epididymal spermatozoa of all the species assayed. Electron microscope observations of the caput epididymal spermatozoa nuclei treated with heparin revealed that the chromatin is organized into nuclear bodies joined by a network of cross-linked and branched chromatin fibers in the species studied.