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Sperm capacitation pretreatment positively impacts bovine intracytoplasmic sperm injection
Author(s) -
Águila Luis,
Zambrano Fabiola,
Arias Maria E.,
Felmer Ricardo
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
molecular reproduction and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.745
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1098-2795
pISSN - 1040-452X
DOI - 10.1002/mrd.22834
Subject(s) - capacitation , sperm , andrology , blastocyst , ibmx , biology , intracytoplasmic sperm injection , pronucleus , acrosome reaction , embryo , embryogenesis , endocrinology , microbiology and biotechnology , in vitro fertilisation , zygote , medicine , stimulation , forskolin
The efficiency of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in bovines is low compared to other species due in part to inadequate egg activation and sperm nucleus decondensation after injection. We hypothesized that this low efficiency is due to the lack of complete sperm capacitation, so we evaluated the effects of isobutylmethylxanthine (IBMX) and methyl‐β‐cyclodextrin (MβCD) on bovine sperm capacitation and on the preimplantation developmental potential of bovine embryos generated by ICSI. Treatment with IBMX and MβCD decreased sperm viability (between 13–30%); nevertheless, 0.4 mM IBMX and 1 mM MβCD increased ( p < 0.05) capacitation metrics—that is, acrosome exocytosis, intracellular calcium level, plasma membrane fluidity, and tyrosine phosphorylation—compared to the control. After ICSI, embryos injected with IBMX‐ and MβCD‐treated sperm showed similar cleavage to the untreated group (range 82–88%). Pronucleus formation rate was higher with MβCD‐pretreatment (54%) compared to the control group (25%), and blastocyst rate was significantly improved with MβCD‐pretreatment (24%) compared to the IBMX (18%) and control (17%) groups. Importantly, embryo quality—as assessed by the total number of cells, cell allocation, and apoptotic cell index—was not affected by the sperm treatments. In conclusion, MβCD pretreatment of sperm improved the efficiency of blastocyst production in bovine ICSI.