Fig. 1

Morphology and ultrastructure of spermatozoa from the patient with globozoospermia. A Papanicolaou staining results showed spermatozoa from the patient with round-head and normal sperm flagella, whereas the spermatozoa from a healthy control had normal morphology. Images in the box show enlarged spermatozoa (scale bars, 5 μm). B Statistics on aberrant sperm in the control and the patient groups (two-sided Student’s t test; error bars, mean ± SEM. NS, P > 0.05; ***, P < 0.0005). C Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrograph showing the ultrastructural defects of sperm acrosomes in the patient (scale bars, 1 μm). D Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis of sperm from the patient and a healthy control showed that the sperm flagella in this patient were normal and intact. Mt, mitochondria; MTD, peripheral microtubule doublets; ODF, outer dense fibers; CP, central pair (scale bars, 200 nm). E Statistics on the ultrastructure of sperm cross sections in controls and patients (two-sided Student’s t test; error bars, mean ± SEM. NS, P > 0.05; ***, P < 0.0005). F A comparative TEM view of sperm heads from the patient and a healthy control. The dotted box denotes the enlarged view of the sperm head and shows the following: compared to normal sperm heads with intact plasma membranes, acrosomes, equatorial segments and nuclei, only plasma membranes and nuclei were observed in the sperm heads of the patient. PM, plasma membrane; ES, equatorial segment; Ac, acrosome; Nu, nucleus (scale bars, 1 μm)