An elite of equine spermatozoa selected by chemotaxis improve the binding to zona pellucida.

MORENO-IRUSTA, AYELEN; RUBENS PAES DE ARRUDA; RODRIGUEZ, MB; LUIS LOSINNO; DOMINGUEZ EM; DANIEL F. SALAMONE; GIOJALAS LC

ANIMAL REPRODUCTION SCIENCE

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2020 vol. 221

0378-4320

The successful use of assisted reproduction techniques (ART) depends in part on the spermphysiological status. Several sperm selection procedures have been applied to improve quality ofsperm population when using the ART. There has previously been development of a Sperm SelectionAssay (SSA) for humans which is based on the attraction of capacitated sperm bychemotaxis towards progesterone (P), resulting in an enriched sperm population with an optimalphysiological status similar to capacitated spermatozoa, with these cells having very little DNAfragmentation and optimal concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In the present study,the aim was to adapt the SSA for frozen-thawed stallion semen samples and evaluate the functionalstatus of those sperm selected using the SSA procedure, and to determine whether thisenriched sperm population has a greater capacity to bind to the zona pellucida of cattle oocytes.There were experimental conditions developed to conduct the SSA with stallion sperm. Usingthese conditions, the indexes of induced acrosome reaction, protein tyrosine phosphorylation,mitochondrial membrane potential, mitochondrial and cytoplasmic reactive oxygen species, andnumber of sperm bound to the zona pellucida of cattle were greater when the sperm populationwas selected using the SSA. Consistently, the DNA fragmentation and phospholipase C zeta indexeswere less for the selected sperm. In conclusion, stallion sperm selected using chemotaxisutilizing the SSA provides a sperm population of greater quality, which when used may improvethe outcomes with use of the ART.