Decrease of fertilizing ability of mouse spermatozoa after freezing and thawing is related to cellular injury.
In general, the fertilizing ability of cryopreserved mouse spermatozoa is less than that of fresh spermatozoa. This ability is especially low in C57BL/6, the main strain used for the production of transgenic mice. To solve this problem, the relationship between cell damage and fertilizing ability in cryopreserved mouse spermatozoa was examined in this study. Sperm motility analysis revealed no significant difference among the motilities of cryopreserved C57BL/6J, BALB/cA, and DBA/2N sperm (67.6%, 43.4%, and 60.0%, respectively) after thawing. However, the results of in vitro fertilization (IVF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed a strong correlation between the frequency of aberrant spermatozoa (FAS) and fertilization rates (FR; C57BL/6J: FAS, 83.7%; FR, 17.0%; BALB/cA: FAS, 67.2%; FR, 24.2%; and DBA/2N: FAS, 10.2%; FR, 93.6%), and damage to spermatozoa was localized particularly in the acrosome of the head and mitochondria.
Nishizono
Hirofumi
H
Kyudo Company Limited, Kumamoto 861-0104, Japan.
Shioda
Masaki
M
Takeo
Toru
T
Irie
Tetsumi
T
Nakagata
Naomi
N
D000177:Acrosome / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000818:Animals; D015925:Cryopreservation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D009865:Oocytes; D012662:Semen Preservation / Q000379:methods*; D013081:Sperm Motility; D013084:Sperm-Ovum Interactions; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure
C485184:enhanced green fluorescent protein; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins