title: Relationships between innovative and traditional parameters to investigate semen quality in pigs.
abstract: Semen quality assessment represents a fundamental step for obtaining successful artificial insemination (AI). In commercial settings, the semen employed for AI should be of high quality but traditional semen quality estimates are not sufficiently sensitive to discriminate between differences among samples in terms of fertilising ability. Therefore, more discriminative sperm characteristics need to be identified in order to better predict fertility outcome. In the present study, a series of molecular aspects of semen, represented by heat shock proteins, oxidative stress status, antioxidant potential and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha were evaluated and analysed. Several relationships between traditional and investigated molecular semen quality estimates were found by using a multivariate analysis approach. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha was identified in boar seminal plasma resulting in positive correlations with several sperm quality aspects and particularly with motility. The protective roles of antioxidant molecules and heat shock proteins have been demonstrated confirming the data previously published in the literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Morphophysiology and Animal Production, (DIMORFIPA), University of Bologna, via Tolara di sopra 50, 40064 Ozzano Emilia, Italy. meturba@vet.unibo.it
authors.forename: Maria Elena
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Turba
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fantinati
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bernardini
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gentilini
authors.forename: Maria Laura
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Bacci
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Forni
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000379:methods; D000818:Animals; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D012661:Semen / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D013081:Sperm Motility / Q000502:physiology; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D013552:Swine / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins