TiHo Bibliothek elib - Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover

Summary
7 Summary
Alex Bauer (2013):
Investigations on the responsiveness to capacitation stimuli in hypothermically
stored boar spermatozoa
Standard spermatology is not sensitive enough to indicate storage influences on
liquid preserved boar spermatozoa. Recently, an assay was established in this
institute which measures the reactivity of boar sperm to capacitation stimuli. The
assay proved to be a sensitive tool for detection of storage-dependent alterations of
sperm function. Semen samples are incubated for 60 minutes in three variants of
capacitating Tyrode’s medium and assessed for intracellular calcium concentration
using a flow cytometer. The aim of the present study was to examine whether the
reactivity assay yields boar specific results (Experiment 1), and to evaluate the
specific reactivity to capacitation stimuli in a larger number of diluted semen samples
from 13 commercial artificial insemination (AI) centers (Experiment 2). Moreover, the
relationship between the reactivity values and conventional spermatology was
determined.
Six ejaculates were collected from each of seven boars in weekly intervals and
diluted with BTS extender (n = 42 ejaculates; Experiment 1). Specific reactivity to
bicarbonate as a capacitation stimulus decreased significantly (p< 0.05) during
storage for 120 h. Compared to fresh semen (R 60Bik = 49.9 %), reactivity decreased
after 72 h for samples stored at 17°C (R 60Bik = 37.5 %), and after 24 h for samples
stored at 5°C (R 60Bik = 12.6 %); p