Saturday, August 29, 2020

Women's Cervical Mucus Prefers Some Sperm Over Others

May help to explain some cases of infertility in couples!



"... researchers found that sperm function better in cervical mucus from women with less similar sequences for the genes that encode the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system, a group of cell-surface proteins that the immune system uses to differentiate self from non-self. ..."



"Several studies have demonstrated that women show pre-copulatory mating preferences for human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-dissimilar men. A fascinating, yet unexplored, possibility is that the ultimate mating bias towards HLA-dissimilar partners could occur after copulation, at the gamete level. ..."



Women's Cervical Mucus Prefers Some Sperm Over Others | The Scientist Magazine® In human male-female pairs with a less similar suite of genes for human leukocyte antigens, sperm fare better when exposed to cervical mucus.



Here is the link to the research paper (notice the title of this paper, sometimes researcher are quite creative):

Post-copulatory genetic matchmaking: HLA-dependent effects of cervical mucus on human sperm function

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