Normal fertility in ewes after cervical insemination with frozen-thawed spermatozoa supplemented with seminal plasma.
The effect of seminal plasma (SP) on the motility, capacitation status, penetration through cervical mucus and fertility of frozen-thawed ram spermatozoa was examined. In the presence of SP, motility of frozen-thawed spermatozoa was better (P<0.001) and there were more uncapacitated and less acrosome-reacted cells in comparison with controls (P<0.001). Frozen thawed spermatozoa were also better able to penetrate cervical mucus after addition of SP. Addition of SP increased the percentage of ewes pregnant after insemination of frozen-thawed (39/94, 41.5% v. 51/92, 55.4%; P<0.05) but not fresh spermatozoa (34/55, 61.8% v. 42/58, 72.4% for 0 v. 30% SP in the resuspension medium). Moreover, SP improved pregnancy rates after cervical (14/50; 28% v. 25/49; 51%; P<0.05) but not intrauterine insemination (25/44; 56.8 v. 26/43; 60.5%) with frozen-thawed spermatozoa. In a second experiment, pregnancy rates were 30/45 (66.7%), 9/37 (24.3%) and 24/40 (60.0%) for ewes inseminated with frozen-thawed spermatozoa in the uterus (control), cervix without SP and cervix after supplementation with SP, respectively (P<0.01 for unsupplemented v. supplemented spermatozoa). These experiments demonstrate that impaired function of cryopreserved spermatozoa can be overcome by addition of SP, resulting in normal fertility after cervical AI.
Maxwell
W M
WM
Department of Animal Science, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia. chism@vetsci.usyd.edu.au
Evans
G
G
Mortimer
S T
ST
Gillan
L
L
Gellatly
E S
ES
McPhie
C A
CA
D000818:Animals; D002582:Cervix Mucus; D002584:Cervix Uteri; D015925:Cryopreservation; D005260:Female; D007315:Insemination, Artificial / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D012661:Semen; D012662:Semen Preservation; D012756:Sheep / Q000502:physiology*; D013075:Sperm Capacitation; D013081:Sperm Motility; D013084:Sperm-Ovum Interactions; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000502:physiology*