Feasibility of Repurposing the Polyanionic Microbicide, PPCM, for Prophylaxis against HIV Transmission during ART

Figure 4

Acrosomal status and ability to respond to acrosomal loss stimuli are maintained after PPCM pretreatment. Motile spermatozoa harvested from pooled semen were resuspended in Ca²⁺-deficient medium and treated with 10 mg/mL PPCM for 15 min, followed by gradient and differential centrifugation to reduce PPCM concentration to undetectable levels. Spermatozoa were resuspended in Ca²⁺-replete medium and acrosomal status was evaluated before and after adding stimuli (PPCM or A23187) of acrosomal loss. Experimental details are provided in Section 2. Values are given as mean percentage of spermatozoa lacking acrosomes; error bars are 90% confidence limits. ^A-CValues with different letter designations are different (𝑃<.001, Newman-Keuls multiple range test).