Received October 27, 2004
Accepted November 08, 2004

The objective of the study was to evaluate the patterns of expression of D-mannose receptors at the surface of spermatozoa of fertile men, during capacitation and following induction of acrossomal reaction with incubation for 20 hours. Thirty patients who were candidate for vasectomy provided one semen sample before the surgery, after signing an informed consent. All men had normal general and urological physical exams and all samples met the normal criteria of the World Health Organization. All semen samples, after routine sperm analysis, were submitted to D-mannose test and to acrossomal reaction test according to the protocol proposed by Benoff et al. (1993a). All semen samples were evaluated at three different moments: after liquefaction and washing (0 hour), after swim-up (sperm processing) (1 hour), and after incubation of the samples for 20 hours, in order to induce acrossomal reaction (20 hour). Five main patterns of expression of D-mannose receptors with intact acrossome were observed. There was no statistical difference among the patterns in the three moments of observation. It was possible to establish normal patterns of expression of D-mannose receptors of normal fertile men that could be compared with semen samples from infertile men.