Abstract
Background: Seminal plasma (SP) promotes sperm survival and fertilizing capacity, and potentially affects embryo development, presumably via specific signaling pathways to the internal female genital tract.Objectives: This study evaluated how heterologous SP, infused immediately before postcervical artificial insemination (AI) affected embryo development and the transcriptional pattern of the pig endometria containing embryos.Materials and Methods: Postweaning estrus sows (n = 34) received 40-mL intrauterine infusions of either heterologous pooled SP or Beltsville Thawing Solution (BTS; control) 30 min before AI of semen extended to 10% of homologous SP. Embryos (all sows) and endometrium samples (3 sows/group) were removed during laparotomy 6 days after the infusion of SP or BTS to morphologically evaluate the embryos to determine their developmental stage and to analyze the endometrial transcriptome using microarrays (PORGENE 1.0 ST GeneChip array, Affymetrix) followed by qPCR for further validation.Results: Embryo viability was equal between the groups (~93%), but embryo development was significantly (P < 0.05) more advanced in the SP-treated group compared to control. A total of 1,604 endometrium transcripts were differentially expressed in the SP group compared to the control group. An enrichment analysis showed an overrepresentation of genes and pathways associated with the immune response, cytokine signaling, cell cycle, cell adhesion, and hormone response, among others.Conclusions: SP infusions prior to AI positively impacted the preimplantation embryo development and altered the expression of the endometrial genes and pathways potentially involved in embryo development.
Highlights
The relevance of keeping a proportion of seminal plasma (SP) in insemination doses to achieve acceptable fertility in the artificial insemination (AI) of pigs was a basic early conclusion of Russian pioneers [1]
SP infusions prior to AI positively impacted the preimplantation embryo development and altered the expression of the endometrial genes and pathways potentially involved in embryo development
Following statistical analysis of the data yield by the Affymetrix microarray, we found in the SP-group that 1,052 genes were differentially expressed in the endometrium of the distal uterine horn (514 upregulated and 537 downregulated), and 552 in the proximal uterus (245 upregulated and 307 downregulated), relative to controls
Summary
The relevance of keeping a proportion of seminal plasma (SP) in insemination doses to achieve acceptable fertility in the artificial insemination (AI) of pigs was a basic early conclusion of Russian pioneers [1]. Studies in rodents and pigs have suggested SP impacts fertilization, implantation and pregnancy, modulating the local immunity of the female reproductive tract [7,8,9]. SP infusion has been recently shown to induce changes in the expression of immune-related genes in the reproductive tract of peri-ovulating pigs, indicating its very early signaling during mating/AI [11]. Seminal plasma (SP) promotes sperm survival and fertilizing capacity, and potentially affects embryo development, presumably via specific signaling pathways to the internal female genital tract
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