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Heterologous In Vitro Fertility Evaluation of Cryopreserved Iberian Red Deer Epididymal Spermatozoa with Zona‐intact Sheep Oocytes and its Relationship with the Characteristics of Thawed Spermatozoa
Author(s) -
Soler AJ,
Poulin N,
FernándezSantos MR,
Cognie Y,
Esteso MC,
Garde JJ,
Mermillod P
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
reproduction in domestic animals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.546
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1439-0531
pISSN - 0936-6768
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0531.2007.00893.x
Subject(s) - acrosome , extender , andrology , sperm , cryopreservation , incubation , biology , semen , zona pellucida , chemistry , oocyte , embryo , biochemistry , medicine , fishery , organic chemistry , polyurethane
Contents A heterologous in vitro system, using zona‐intact sheep oocytes, was used to evaluate the relationship between sperm factors of Iberian red deer thawed epididymal sperm and the percentage of cleaved oocytes. Epididymal spermatozoa were recovered from six males, diluted with freezing extender and cryopreserved. After thawing sperm motility (SM) and acrosome and membrane integrities were evaluated. Again, these parameters were assessed after incubation in freezing extender at 37°C for 2 h. After cryopreservation the values for SM and acrosome and membrane integrities were high (∼80, 80 and 70% respectively). However, these values significantly decreased after incubation (∼59, 62 and 47% respectively). Red deer thawed epididymal sperm fertilized zona‐intact sheep oocytes, although the percentage of cleaved oocytes was low (∼22%). No relationship was found between sperm parameters assessed after thawing and the percentage of cleaved oocytes. Likewise, any sperm parameter evaluated after incubation was assessed in relation to the percentage of cleaved oocytes. However, acrosome and membrane integrities were near to significance (p = 0.06 and p = 0.09 respectively). Then, we conducted a reduced model with these two variables and both were related to the percentage of cleaved oocytes (p = 0.02 and p = 0.04 respectively). Thus, acrosome and membrane integrities were related to the percentage of cleaved oocytes negatively and positively respectively. It was concluded that the classical parameters assessed in deer thawed sperm samples can be good predictors of the ability to fertilize zona‐intact sheep oocytes.