Molecular basis of Sperm Energy restriction plus Recovery (SER) improvement on sperm function by high-resolution metabolomics.

ANA ROMAROWSKI; MARTÍN-HIDALGO, DAVID; MARIA G. GERVASI; NAVARRETE, FELIPE; BALBACH, MELANIE; LEVIN, LONNY R.; BUCK, JOCHEN; JASNA FEJZO; PABLO E. VISCONTI

New Hampshire

Conferencia; Gordon Research Conference; 2019

Sperm capacitation involves a fine crosstalk between metabolic and signaling pathways. Recently, the Visconti group developed a technique where all nutrients were removed from the medium, sperm were incubated until become motionless, and nutrients were added back. This method, named Sperm Energy restriction plus Recovery (SER) significantly improved the percentage of hyperactive sperm, in vitro fertilization and embryo development rates. The aim of this work was to understand the effect of SER treatment on sperm at the metabolomic and molecular level. We found that recovering in a medium with only glucose as energy substrate was sufficient to produce the increased hyperactivation levels obtained after SER treatment. In addition, SER treated sperm showed an increase in energy production pathways consistent with the improvements on sperm function. We found the highest glycolysis, krebs cycle and oxidative phosphorylation levels by measuring glucose consumption rate, by using the Seahorse technology, and by metabolomics using high-resolution NMR and Mass Spectrometry. Finally, our results showed that SER treatment extra energy production modulates the onset of sperm protein phosphorylation in tyrosine residues. These results indicate that manipulation of sperm metabolism can improve sperm function.