Abstract
Shipment of laboratory rats between animal facilities is frequently performed using special containers. However, the shipment of live animals is associated with potential risks of infectious diseases, escape and death during shipment and animal welfare issues. The transport of cold-stored sperm avoids such risks; however, there have been no reports on cold storage of rat sperm. We previously reported that dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and quercetin maintained the motility and fertilising abilities of cold-stored mouse sperm stored for 10 days. The present study investigated the efficacy of DMSO and quercetin in the cold storage of rat sperm. Quercetin maintained motility and fertility of cold-stored rat sperm stored for 5 days. After in vitro fertilisation using cold-stored sperm, pronuclear and two-cell embryos developed normally to pups following embryo transfer. Therefore, we demonstrated that live pups could be obtained from sperm transported using the cold-storage system. We conclude that cold storage of rat sperm may provide an efficient system for transporting rat resources as an alternative to shipping live animals.
Highlights
Shipment of laboratory rats between animal facilities is frequently performed using special containers
The protective effects of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and quercetin may be applicable to rat sperm; there have been no previous reports about the cold-storage of rat sperm or in vitro fertilisation (IVF) using cold-stored rat sperm
DMSO and quercetin improved the motility of cold‐stored rat sperm
Summary
Shipment of laboratory rats between animal facilities is frequently performed using special containers. The transport of cold-stored sperm avoids such risks; there have been no reports on cold storage of rat sperm. We previously reported that dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and quercetin maintained the motility and fertilising abilities of coldstored mouse sperm stored for 10 days. The present study investigated the efficacy of DMSO and quercetin in the cold storage of rat sperm. Mouse sperm stored in coldstorage medium of Lifor supplemented with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and quercetin at 4 °C maintained motility and fertility for 10 days[8]. We first examined the effects of quercetin and DMSO on the motility and fertilisation ability of cold-stored sperm. We examined the fertilisation capacity of sperm stored in cold-storage medium containing DMSO and quercetin for different storage periods. We studied the effects of transportation on cold-stored cauda epididymides as well as the fertilisation and developmental abilities of cold-transported rat sperm
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