RELEVANCE OF THE CYSTEIN-RICH SECRETORY PROTEIN(CRISP) FAMILY FOR MALE FERTILITY

ROJO D; RUBINSTEIN M; BRUKMAN N; DA ROS VG; CURCI, LUDMILA; VISACOVSKY N; CUASNICU PS

Mar del Plata

Congreso; LXIII Reunión anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clínica; 2018

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clínica

Cysteine-Rich Secretory Protein (CRISP) 1, 2, 3 and 4 are mainly expressed in the male reproductive tract and have key roles in mammalian fertilization. In spite of this, single mutant mice for these proteins are fertile suggesting the existence of compensatory mechanisms between homologous CRISP members. Based on this, in the present work we studied the functional relevance of CRISP proteins for fertility by using mice lacking the four members of the family (QKO) generated by the novel CRISPR/Cas9 technique. Fertility was tested by caging QKO males with control females for 5 days and it was determined by the number of born pups 21 days after observation of copulatory plug. Results showed that fertility of QKO mice was severely impaired compared to controls (p