Effects of freeze-drying on the quality and fertilising ability of goat sperm recovered from different parts of the epididymis

Creating Ex Situ Protected Bioreservoirs as a Powerful Strategy for the Reproductive Biotechnology-Mediated Rescue of Threatened Polish Livestock Breeds

“…Previous research has demonstrated that lyophilized (cryodesiccated) spermatozoa can undergo the processes of biodestruction within plasma membrane and/or genomic DNA that had been separately or collectively damaged due to the occurrence of oxidative stress and impairments occurring in anti-oxidative events. The latter can be, in turn, prompted by bioaccumulating reactive oxygen species (ROS) and diminishing the concentration or attenuating the enzymatic activity of intrinsic water-soluble isoforms for potent scavengers of ODFRs [74,75]. Attempts to decrease the incidence of ROS-induced DNA biodegradation during lyophilization of spermatozoa have targeted the enhancement of anti-oxidative activity of endogenous biocatalytic ODFR scavengers, which can be accomplished via enrichment of the freeze-drying media with exogenous water-soluble phenolic (polyphenol) antioxidants such as rosmarinic acid (RosA; an ester of caffeic acid and 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl lactic acid), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) or ethyleneglycol-bis(β-aminoethyl)-N,N,N ,N -tetraacetic acid (EGTA) [76][77][78].…”

“…It is worth highlighting that aberrations in such sperm quality parameters as viability, motility and even DNA stability do not exclude the usefulness of the lyophilized and subsequently rehydrated spermatozoa for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)mediated procedures carried out to in vitro fertilize metaphase II (MII)-stage oocytes in livestock species [33,34,74]. Nevertheless, maintenance of the conditions facilitating the alleviation of DNA biodegradation or internucleosomal fragmentation during freeze-drying of spermatozoa might largely improve the applicability of ICSI to in vitro fertilization (IVF), even if the male gametes exhibit a large amount of not only ultrastructural and biophysical impairments in the sperm intracellular organelles and compartments, but also hyperpermeabilization or biochemical destabilization of plasmalemma integrity [72,75].…”