Male Fertility

Adding to a growing literature on the role of metabolic enzymes and ATP production in sperm function, it is now shown that one lactate dehydrogenase family member, LDHC, is required for male fertility.  Several decades of work on this glycolytic enzyme had shown that it is expressed primarily in testis, but its functional significance had been only speculative.  In an article on p. 26 Odet et al.  Report that male mice homozygous for a targeted disruption of Ldhc are severely impaired in fertility, whereas females are fertile.  The fertility defects include impaired sperm motility, reduction of capacitation-related protein phosphorylation, and fertilization defects—all probably due to compromised ATP production.  Thus, LDHC is required for glycolysis and ATP production in the sperm tail, and this finding may lead to new insights into infertility in men.

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