造成不孕的原因當中有25 ~ 40 %是由於男性因素所引起(1)。造成男性不孕症的原因雖多但絕大部份是和精子的型態、數目及運動功能有關，因此提升男性精子品質與精子細胞之量測成為一個重要的事項。 原子力顯微術具有原子級的解像能力，且不受限於導電材料與操作環境，可應用於各種生物的表面和微觀結構，故可作為奈米微晶結構的檢測工具。本實驗以原子力顯微術量測人類精子細胞形態構造，表面生物力學特性。從實驗的結果得知，精子細胞頭部高度、寬度和長度分別為0.96 ± 0.15 µm、3.53 ± 0.24 µm和4.79 ± 0.44 µm，而鞭毛的長度為35.94 ± 3.81 µm。表面的黏滯力約12.95 ± 1.23 nN，頂體抗體與精子細胞頂體鍵結力為441.67 ± 32.21 pN。藉由原子力顯微術分析精子細胞頭部奈米結構的差異變化，可以作為正常與異常精細胞的判別；利用原子力顯微術特有的量測力學特性來檢測頂體抗體與精子細胞頂體間專一性鍵結力之關係。 The semen quality was the major factor of infertility. Some clinical reports had also shown the correlation between the human sperm cell morphology and infertility. The objective of this study was investigated the ultrastructure of human sperm cell with atomic force microscope (AFM) which provided the examination of fine structural details of biomolecules already. The structure characterization of normal human sperm cells indicated that the height, width, length of the cell’s head were 0.96 ± 0.15 µm, 3.53 ± 0.24 µm, and 4.79 ± 0.44 µm respectively and the length of flagellum was 35.94 ± 3.81 µm. The mechanical property of the human sperm cell was obtained form the tip-cell adhesion, and the histograms and corresponding Gaussian distribution curves for adhesion force was estimated 12.95 ± 1.23 nN. Moreover, the novel interaction of force mapping between the tip with anti-acrosome modification and the acrosomal protein of the sperm cell was obtained from the AFM measurement. The specific binding force of normal human sperm cell was around 441.67 ± 32.21 pN. Compared of the nanostructure and the nanomechanical properties, we can regard as the discrimination of the normal and unusual human sperm cells.
