Abstract
The present study was carried out to clarify morphological changes of acrosome in boar sperm heads during and after cell death. Undiluted boar semen was incubated at 37 °C under aerobic condition for 5 or 10 hr and the sperm head morphology was observed by a transmission electron microscopy. The viability of boar spermatozoa just before incubation was very vigorous, but 98 % of the spermatozoa was completely immotile within 5 hr after the start of incubation. Most of the spermatozoa (81.1 %) just before incubation showed normal structures of the head. The normality of sperm head morphology remarkably decreased (8.1 %) 5 hr after incubation (P<0.05), and the morphology of membrane vesiculation (41.8 %) and swelling of plasma membrane (28.1 %) increased (P<0.05). In contrast to the results 5 hr after incubation the membrane vesiculation (10.5%) and the swelling of plasma membrane (4.1 %) decreased (P<0.05) 10 hr after the incubation, and loss of acrosomal contents (52.6 %) remarkably increased (P<0.05). It was suggested that a swelling of plasma membrane, membrane vesiculation and loss of acrosomal contents might mainly participate in the course of morphological changes of acrosome in boar sperm heads during and after cell death.
Published Version (Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have