Abstract
The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of L-carnitine (LC), hypotaurine (HT), and taurine (T) on the quality of frozen-thawed chicken semen. Pooled semen samples were divided into seven aliquots (control, 1 mM LC, 5 mM LC, 1 mM HT, 10 mM HT, 1 mM T, and 10 mM T) and subjected to cryopreservation. Postthaw sperm motility was determined by IVOS system and sperm characteristics were assessed with fluorochromes and flow cytometry. The highest sperm motility and the highest percentage of viable sperm were in the HT1 group (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05) following cryopreservation. After thawing, we observed a higher percentage of sperm without apoptosis and membrane reorganization changes in the LC1 and T1 group when compared to the control (P < 0.05). There was a higher percentage of live sperm without lipid peroxidation (LPO) in all treatments (P < 0.01; P < 0.05), when compared to the control group. The percentage of sperm with high mitochondrial potential significantly increased with LC1, T1, and T10 (P < 0.05). Supplementation of the diluent with LC1, LC5, and T1 significantly (P < 0.05) reduced DNA susceptibility to fragmentation, compared to the control and HT1 groups. These results indicate that the addition of examined antioxidants improves the quality of cryopreserved chicken semen.
Highlights
Sperm plasma membrane possesses polyunsaturated fatty acids which are susceptible to lipid peroxidation (LPO) [1,2,3,4]
Percentages of sperm with high mitochondrial activity significantly increased with L-carnitine at dose 1 mM and taurine at doses 1 and 10 mM (P < 0.05), when compared to the control. 1 mM T produced the highest high mitochondrial membrane potential (HMMP) (P < 0.05) in relation to the control and LC5 groups
The results of the present study demonstrate that the addition of studied antioxidants improves cryopreserved chicken semen
Summary
Sperm plasma membrane possesses polyunsaturated fatty acids which are susceptible to lipid peroxidation (LPO) [1,2,3,4]. The specific characteristics of spermatozoa such as low cytoplasm content, a large number of mitochondria, and low level of antioxidants in sperm cytoplasm make them susceptible to damage from free radicals [5, 6]. Damage of a sperm plasma membrane in the fresh semen is partially limited by the presence of antioxidant system in both spermatozoa and seminal plasma [7,8,9]. During cryopreservation, which is the sole biotechnological procedure for ex situ in vitro protection of avian genomic resource, the antioxidant protection of seminal plasma rapidly declines, as spermatozoa are extended in cryopreserving medium [10,11,12]. Artificial additives for freezing medium improving mammalian semen quality become increasingly popular in chicken reproductive techniques
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