No abstract

Artificial insemination with stallions' frozen semen have not been widely used, mainly due to the high variability of field results and the increased cost associated with it. Sperm cell membrane lipids play an important role on several events associated with fertilization. These cells go through structural and chemicals changes during freezing and might participate in the freezeability of ejaculates. This work was composed by two experiments. In Experiment I sperm samples from six bulls and six stallions were collected, "washed" through centrifugation and stored at-80° in the following mediums: PBS Ca ++ Mg ++ Free, Methanol HPLC-standard and a solution 1:1 PBS Ca ++ Mg ++ Free and Methanol HPLC-standard. The samples on PBS were analyzed immediately after lipid extraction or after the addition of methanol. These samples were evaluated on the day after collection and 45 days later for evaluation of the possibility of a direct analyses with methanol and the effect of long periods of storage with methanol on lipid degradation. The possibility of an extraction-free direct MALDI-TOF analysis was confirmed. The storage with methanol did not resulted in lipid degradation for the period studied, however the storage of previously extract samples resulted on irregular spectrums. In Experiment II 16 sperm samples from stallions were collected and frozen. An aliquot of 500µl from each sample was washed through centrifugation and stored with a 1:1 PBS Ca ++ Mg ++ Free and Methanol HPLC-standard solution. In vitro sperm analysis of motility and morphology were studied for relations with the lipid profile through a principal components analysis (PCA). It was not observed relation between lipid profile and sperm motility and morphology, as previously reported by others authors. However, these authors methodology were highly complex , making it difficult for field application. MALDI-TOF sample preparation its easy and fast and new test with a larger number of samples and field fertility results may prove this is a viable tool for improving field results with frozen semen artificial insemination.