ArticleNature communications2015
Two-dimensional slither swimming of sperm within a micrometre of a surface.
Article in Nature communications, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
85 citing papers in PubMed.
- Simulated microgravity alters sperm navigation, fertilization and embryo development in mammals.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Sperm hyperactivation drives a circling-and-wandering swimming behavior.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Refined trajectory smoothing and deep learning classification of human sperm motility.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- An Artificial Intelligence-Based Computer Vision Model for Human Sperm Concentration, Motility, and Kinematics Analysis.Smart medicine · 2026Article
- From reservoir to rendezvous: the journey of sperm through the oviduct.Reproduction, fertility, and development · 2026Review
- Sperm-female interactions in the pig oviduct, a key for insemination success?The Journal of reproduction and development · 2026Review
- Flagellar location determines the stability of bacterial surface entrapment.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Simple and rapid microfluidic device for processing raw human semen and separation of motile sperm based on their intrinsic behavior and morphology.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Known and Unknown About Female Reproductive Tract Mucus Rheological Properties.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Swimming by Spinning: Spinning-Top Type Rotations Regularize Sperm Swimming Into Persistently Progressive Paths in 3D.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Effect of semen dilution rate and dimethyl acetamide levels on post-thaw motility and fertility parameters of rooster sperm.PloS one · 2025Article
- Robust undulatory locomotion through neuromechanical adjustments in a dissipative medium.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Article
- Hybrid motility mechanism of sperm at viscoelastic fluid-solid interface.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Fallopian tube rheology regulates epithelial cell differentiation and function to enhance cilia formation and coordination.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Self-organized vortex phases and hydrodynamic interactions in Bos taurus sperm cells.Physical review. E · 2024Article
- One-step formation of polymorphous sperm-like microswimmers by vortex turbulence-assisted microfluidics.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Hybrid motility mechanism of sperm at viscoelastic-solid interface.Research square · 2024Article
- Making immotile sperm motile using high-frequency ultrasound.Science advances · 2024Article
- Sperm in the Mammalian Female Reproductive Tract: Surfing Through the Tract to Try to Beat the Odds.Annual review of animal biosciences · 2024Review
- Exploring altered bovine sperm trajectories by sperm tracking in unconfined conditions.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Sperm motion near surfaces plays a crucial role in fertilization, but the nature of this motion has not been resolved. Using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, we selectively imaged motile human and bull sperm located within one micron of a surface, revealing a distinct two-dimensional (2D) 'slither' swimming mode whereby the full cell length (50-80 μm) is confined within 1 μm of a surface. This behaviour is distinct from bulk and near-wall swimming modes where the flagellar wave is helical and the head continuously rotates. The slither mode is intermittent (∼1 s, ∼70 μm), and in human sperm, is observed only for viscosities over 20 mPa·s. Bull sperm are slower in this surface-confined swimming mode, owing to a decrease in their flagellar wave amplitude. In contrast, human sperm are ∼50% faster-suggesting a strategy that is well suited to the highly viscous and confined lumen within the human fallopian tube.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.