SPERM RELEASE FROM THE OVIDUCTAL EPITHELIUM DEPENDS ON Ca2+ INFLUX THROUGH TRPV1 AND THE SEQUENTIAL ACTIVATION OF CB1 AND TRPV1 BY AEA IN BOVINES

GERVASI MG; OSYCKA SALUT C; LLADOS C; VILLALÓN M; PEREZ-MARTINEZ S

Quebec

Congreso; SSR 46th Annual Meeting. Reproductive Health: Nano to Global.; 2013

Sperm transit in the female tract is a critical event for the success of fertilization. Anandamide (AEA) is an endocannabinoid that binds to cannabinoid (CB1 and CB2) and vanilloid (TRPV1) receptors and activates several different pathways. Previously, we studied the participation of AEA in the regulation of sperm-oviduct interaction in bovines and we found that AEA promotes sperm release from oviductal epithelium probably by inducing sperm capacitation through the activation of CB1 and TRPV1. Taking into account that sperm capacitation is one of the causes of sperm release from oviductal reservoir, and that CB1 and TRPV1 are activated during this event, the aims of the present work were 1) to study the possible crosstalk between these receptors and 2) to investigate the participation of TRPV1-mediated gating of Ca2+, in the regulation of sperm release from oviductal cells induced by AEA in bovines.The crosstalk between CB1 and TRPV1 depends on the activation of a phospholipase C (PLC). Thus we performed experiments of sperm-oviduct interaction incubating the co-cultures with a combination of different CB1 and TRPV1 agonists, antagonists or a PLC inhibitor. Our results showed that either capsaicin (a TRPV1 agonist) or ACEA (a CB1 agonist) decreased the number of spermatozoa bound to the epithelial cells (p