Abstract: The intracellular signaling molecules and membrane ion channels regulate the sperm function. The transient receptor potential (TRP) channels participate in various physiological processes through regulating the intracellular ion concentrations. The thermo-TRP channels are a group of the TRP channels which can convert the temperature signal into biological signal, including the heat-gated ion channels such as TRPV1, TRPV2, TRPV3 and TRPV4, and the cold-gated ion channels such as TRPM8 and TRPA1. TRPM8 and TRPV1 located in the different segments of the sperm are involved in calcium signaling pathway. The activated TRPM8 and TRPV1 can regulate sperm motility, acrosome reaction, thermotaxis, etc. TRPV1 can also induce sperm to release from oviductal epithelia cell adhesion. Besides, the change of TRPV1 ligand binding sites can lead to the dysfunction of TRPV1 channel, which might have negative effects on male fertility.

Key words: TRPV cation channels, TRPM cation channels, Sperm motility, Acrosome reaction, Fertility