49 EFFECT OF ADDING Trolox C AND ASCORBIC ACID TO RAM SPERM BEFORE CRYOPRESERVATION ON THE MOTILITY AND BINDING CAPABILITY

Abstract

Different antioxidants have been tested to improve sperm quality, but distinct and consistent beneficial effects are lacking. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the addition of different concentrations of the antioxidant Trolox C and ascorbic acid before cryopreservation could improve the binding of sperm to chicken egg perivitelline membrane (PM) after cryopreservation. Three ejaculates of ram were split and diluted with Tris egg yolk diluent to a final concentration of 200 × 106 cells mL–1, and after, the ejaculates were divided into 5 tubes. Each tube received one of the following antioxidants: control, no antioxidant; 200 μM of Trolox C; 300 μM of Trolox C; 0.05% of ascorbic acid; and 0.25% of ascorbic acid. The samples were cooled to 5°C/2 h, packaged into 0.5-mL straws, and frozen in static LN vapor for 15 min before being plunged into LN. Straws were thawed (37°C/30 s). The motility was determined using computer-assisted semen analysis. For PM binding test, PM was put in tubes with 1 mL of TALP and inseminated with 50 000 sperm. The PM and sperm were incubated for 90 min at 37°C in an atmosphere of 5% CO2 in air, and 20 min before the end of the incubation time, 10 μL of Hoechst 33342 was added in each treatment. After each PM was washed 5 times in TALP, placed under the coverslip on a slide, and evaluated by fluorescence microscopy at 400×. Spermatozoa were counted in 6 random fields of each piece of PM. Percentage data were transformed using arcsine prior analysis. Treatment differences were determine by analysis of variance and Tukey test. The total and progressive motility of sperm treated with 0.25% ascorbic acid Trolox C was higher (64.5 and 45%) than 100 μM of Trolox C (61.9 and 42.6%) and 200 μM of Trolox C (64.3 and 46.7%) and control (59.8 and 39.6%; P < 0.05), respectively. The binding test was higher when using 0.25% of ascorbic acid (155.73 cells; P < 0.05) compared with other treatments. Addition of 0.25% ascorbic acid to ram sperm before cryopreservation improved cell cryosurvival rates.