An Overview of Adding Rho-Associated Coiled-Coil Kinase and Knockout Serum Replacement with Trehalose to a Low Glycerol Tris-Based Semen Extender

Abstract

It is known that livestock animal semen is very sensitive to cold shock during freezing processes, and this sensitivity directly affects post-thaw sperm qualities which are progressive motility, mitochondrial membrane potential, sperm nuclear DNA integrity and in vitro spermatological parameters such as plasma membrane and acrosome integrity, and sperm fertility. In addition, with the sudden decrease in the total antioxidant level of the semen after thawing, the sperm cells are insufficient to tolerate their damage. Consequently, significant losses occur in sperm fertility. For this reason, researches on freezing the semen of livestock animals include semen processing; cryopreservation/cryogenic damage – thawing methods - sperm extenders, added antioxidants, the mechanisms of action and metabolic pathways of these antioxidants and physiological and metabolic parameters such as sperm fertility. It has been explained that low dose glycerol (trehalose added to increase the cryoprotectant effect) added to the extender in the freezing of livestock animal semen, knockout serum replacement (KSR) and Rho-associated coiled-coil kinase (ROCK), which are antioxidant additives, can increase the in vitro quality parameters of frozen thawed semen.