Effect of dehydroleucodine on the fertilizing ability of mouse capacitated spermatozoa

SUHAIMAN, LAILA; DE ROSAS, JUAN CARLOS; LÓPEZ, LUIS ALBERTO

Merlo, San Luis. Argentina

Congreso; Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2004

Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo

It has been shown that sesquiterpene lactones act in vitro to inhibit a group of steroidogenic enzymes, the aromatases.  These enzymes transform testosterone into estradiol, and are localized in Leydig cells and in cells of the seminiferous epithelium. We tested the effect of dehydroleucodine (DhL), a sesquiterpene lactone isolated from matico, a medicinal herb widely distributed in the Cuyo area, on the male tract of adult male Balc D strain mice. Mice were treated with 0.7 mg of DhL/kg body weight per day for 30 days. After the treatment, spermatozoa from the cauda epidydims were obtained and capacitated with HAM-F10 medium supplemented with 25 mg/ml of serum albumin and 25 mM of bicarbonate; incubated with capacitated spermatozoa at 37º C in 5% CO2 atmosphere for 60 minutes.  Oocytes were obtained from female adult hamsters in estrus. The zona pellucida of the oocytes was removed with 1% hyaluronidase, and were incubated with capacitated spermatozoa at 37º C in 5% CO2 atmosphere for 30 minutes and fixed with 5% glutaraldehyde. After analysis by inverted microscope, the control group showed 2.6 ± 0.6 spermatozoa per oocyte; and the treated group showed 7.2 ± 2.7 spermatozoa per oocyte. From these results we conclude that DhL is increasing the affinity of capacitated spermatozoa for zona pellucida-free oocytes.