CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

High fat diets generate acquired hypercholesterolemia (HC) in New Zealand rabbits. These HC bugs have seminal and sperm alterations, specifically morphological abnormalities increase. During spermiogenesis, the Golgi/acroplaxome/manchette maturation is associated with the final shape of spermatozoa. The aim of this work was to describe the mechanism related with sperm morphological changes described in HC rabbits. In order to do this work,adult rabbits were fed with balanced meal (NormoCholesterolemic Rabbits, NCR); or with fat-enriched balanced meal, suplemented with 14% (w/w) of grease (HyperCholesterolemic Rabbits, HCR). Twice a month, semen samples were obtained and a complete sperm analisis was made. Spermatozoa were fixed, stained andanalyzed under light microscopy to corroborate morphological alterations already described. Then, testis were obtained and analyzed under light and electron microscopy. In order to study Golgi/acroplaxome/ manchette development in specific seminipherous epithelial stadiums of the spermatogenesis (VI to VIII),these stadiums were isolated and observed under fluorescence microcopy. At sperm level, the morphological abnormalities on head and insertion point of tail increased on HCR group after 6 months of high fat diets, comparing with NCR group. At testicular level, histological changes were observed as small light areas (lipid droplets) between spermatogenic cells, seminipherous epithelialdetachment, and lax and asymmetric acrosomes, on HCR condition. At seminipherous epithelial cells level, spermiogenesis alterations were shown: nucleus condensation abnormalities, misplaced tails presence, acrosomic vesicles abnormalities, cytoplasmic whirls, manchette alterations with depolarized microtubules and oblique traction. These results suggest that hypercholesterolemia has a negative effect that finally affects spermiogenesis, expressed as teratozoospermia