The Amount of Zinc Detected in Washed Human Spermatozoa

Abstract

Samples of human semen, the supernatants from washings of these samples, and the suspensions of washed spermatozoa, were examined for zinc in a Perkin-Elmer spectrophotometer. Almost all the zinc was found in the original semen samples and in the first washings. Zinc could not be detected in the heads of fourfold-washed spermatozoa on analysis in a wavelength dispersive X-ray spectrophotometer attached to a scanning electron microscope.