Lactoferrin increases sperm membrane functionality of frozen equine semen |
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| Authors: | HS Martins GC da Silva SF Cortes FO Paes OA Martins Filho MSS Araujo R Stahlberg MA Lagares |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Departamento de Clinica e Cirurgia Veterinárias da Escola de Veterinária da, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil;2. Departamento de Farmacologia do Instituto de Ciências Biológicas da UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil;3. Centro de Pesquisas René Rachou ‐ Fiocruz, Laboratório de Biomarcadores de Diagnóstico e Monitora??o, Belo Horizonte, Brazil;4. Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária da Pontifícia, Universidade Católica‐ PUC Minas, Betim, Brazil |
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| Abstract: | During cryopreservation, sperm was submitted to an increase in reactive oxygen species generation. This work aimed to improve the quality of frozen equine sperm after the addition of antioxidants lactoferrin (Lf) and catalase (Cat) to a freezing extender. Semen from six stallions was frozen with the extenders: F1) control, INRA 82 freezing extender, F2) F1 + 500 μg/ml Lf and F3) F1 + 200 IU/ml Cat. After thawing, sperm motility parameters, membrane functionality and integrity, and acrosome integrity and spontaneous acrosome‐reacted sperm were evaluated with a computer‐assisted sperm analysis, a hypoosmotic swelling test and epifluorescent microscopy, respectively. Nitrite, hydroperoxide and iron concentrations of frozen semen were measured with spectrophotometry. The percentage of functional membrane sperm treated with Lf was higher (50.7% ± 11.6%) compared to that of the control (37.6% ± 15.6%), while the iron (61.4 ± 11.6 vs 73.3 ± 13.8 mg/dl) and nitrite concentrations (16.3 ± 7.1 vs 25.9 ± 4.2 μM/μg protein) were lower, respectively (p < .05). Thus, it can be suggested that Lf protect stallion spermatozoon during freezing as it has increased the percentage of sperm with functional membrane and decreased the lipid oxidant agents. |
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| Keywords: | antioxidant catalase cryopreservation horse spermatozoa stallion |
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