Attachment of pig spermatozoa to polymeric hydrogels

MORILLA G; A C. LIAUDAT; BLOIS D; CAPELLA V; FUNES R; RIVAROLA C; BARBERO C; BOSCH P; RODRIGUEZ N

Congreso; XXI JORNADAS CIENTÍFICAS Sociedad de Biología de Córdoba; 2017

ATTACHMENT OF PIG SPERMATOZOA TO POLYMERIC HYDROGELSMorilla G (1), Liaudat AC (1), Blois D (1), Capella V (1,2), Funes R (3), Rivarola C (2), Barbero C (2), Bosch P (1) Rodríguez N (1)(1) Dpto de Biol Mol y (2) Dpto de Qca, Fac de Cs. Exactas Fco-Qcas y Naturales, UNRC. (3) CIP Centro de Inseminación Porcina Veterinaria Rivoira.- *gmorilla@ayv.unrc.edu.ar.Reproductive efficiency of pig farms is highly correlated with the fertility of males. Therefore, it is very important developing technics for spermatic separation with the purpose of selecting high quality cells for assisted reproduction techniques. In the last years, the use of hydrogels in biology is receiving great attention due to their potential applications in medicine and biotechnology. The objective of this work is to develop new polymeric materials that can be used as a platform to select a subpopulation of spermatozoa with better fertility capacity. To this end, we synthetized polymeric hydrogels with different net charges (positive CAT, negative or neutral HMA). We observed interaction between spermatozoa and polymeric surfaces by light microscopy. Morphological aspects and motility of attached sperm were recorded. The results indicate that pig spermatozoa attach mostly to neutral or positively charged hydrogels. Microscopic observation showed that the union of the spermatic cells to hydrogels occurred mostly through the apical zone of the head. Attached spermatozoa kept actively motile for several hours. These preliminary results indicate that hydrogels can be use to select pig spermatozoa with high motility for use in assisted reproduction technics.