ArticleJournal of cell science2023
Human sperm rotate with a conserved direction during free swimming in four dimensions.
Article in Journal of cell science, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Known and Unknown About Female Reproductive Tract Mucus Rheological Properties.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025Review
- 3D+t Multifocal Imaging Dataset of Human Sperm.Scientific data · 2025Article
- Swimming by Spinning: Spinning-Top Type Rotations Regularize Sperm Swimming Into Persistently Progressive Paths in 3D.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Review
- Fluid flow reconstruction around a free-swimming sperm in 3D.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Time and power dependence of laser-induced photodamage on human sperm revealed by longitudinal rolling measurement using optical tweezers.Biomedical optics express · 2024Article
- Activation of motility and chemotaxis in the spermatozoa.Reproductive medicine and biologyReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Head rotation in human spermatozoa is essential for different swimming modes and fertilisation, as it links the molecular workings of the flagellar beat with sperm motion in three-dimensional (3D) space over time. Determining the direction of head rotation has been hindered by the symmetry and translucent nature of the sperm head, and by the fast 3D motion driven by the helical flagellar beat. Analysis has been mostly restricted to two-dimensional (2D) single focal plane image analysis, which enables tracking of head centre position but not tracking of head rotation. Despite the conserved helical beating of the human sperm flagellum, human sperm head rotation has been reported to be uni- or bi-directional, and even to intermittently change direction in a given cell. Here, we directly measure the head rotation of freely swimming human sperm using multi-plane 4D (3D+t) microscopy and show that: (1) 2D microscopy is unable to distinguish head rotation direction in human spermatozoa; (2) head rotation direction in non-capacitating and capacitating solutions, for both aqueous and viscous media, is counterclockwise (CCW), as seen from head to tail, in all rotating spermatozoa, regardless of the experimental conditions; and (3) head rotation is suppressed in 36% of spermatozoa swimming in non-capacitating viscous medium, although CCW rotation is recovered after incubation in capacitating conditions within the same viscous medium, possibly unveiling an unexplored aspect of the essential need of capacitation for fertilisation. Our observations show that the CCW head rotation in human sperm is conserved. It constitutes a robust and persistent helical driving mechanism that influences sperm navigation in 3D space over time, and thus is of critical importance in cell motility, propulsion of flagellated microorganisms, sperm motility assessments, human reproduction research, and self-organisation of flagellar beating patterns and swimming in 3D space.
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Registered trials
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