Human spermatozoa: a confocal Raman-microspectroscopic study

We have exploited confocal Raman microspectroscopy to investigate the chemio-structural features of human spermatozoa as wells as the biomolecular effects induced by the environmental pollutant lindane, a organochlorine pesticide. The results of this study show that Raman spectroscopy can provide important information about the structure of human spermatozoa and that any changes due to the presence of pesticides appear as anomalies in the Raman spectrum obtained from intact sperm. Our findings suggest lindane-induced alterations of membrane proteins in pesticide-treated spermatozoa. This study constitutes the first Raman spectroscopic study of human spermatozoa and suggests that an important advantage of this spectroscopy over other techniques is its ability to directly link changes in the biochemical structure to biological aspects of cell processes.