BULL SPERM SELECTION BY ATTACHMENT TO HYALURONIC ACID SEMI-INTERPENETRATED HYDROGELS

LIAUDAT ANA CECILIA; BLOIS D; CAPELLA V; MORILLA G; RIVERO, REBECA E.; BARBERO C; RODRIGUEZ N; RIVAROLA, CLAUDIA R.; BOSCH, PABLO

REPRODUCTION IN DOMESTIC ANIMALS (1990)

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2021

0936-6768

We report the development of a hydrogel-based approach to select bull spermatozoa, a crucial step for successful assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs). Hyaluronic acid (HA) semi-interpenetrated N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM) co-20% N-Tris (hydroxymethyl) methyl acrylamide (HMA) hydrogels were synthetized on glass surfaces and cultured in presence of frozen-thawed bull spermatozoa. A fraction of motile bull spermatozoa population strongly attached to hydrogels and was partially released by treatment with hyaluronidase. Fifty-nine (59 ± 7.24) percent of sperm cells attached to PNIPAM-HMA-HA hydrogels and 31.16 ± 4.81 % of them were released upon treatment with medium containing hyaluronidase. This attached-released sperm fraction has acceptable characteristics of progressive motility (50.0 ± 5.0 %), vigor (4), high viability (58.7 ± 11.7 %) and low percentage of acrosome reacted spermatozoa (23.36 ± 4.1 %). Our findings indicate that PNIPAM-HMA-HA hydrogels are non-toxic and allow the selection of high-quality sperm cells for ART.