Epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate (EGCG) and green tea polyphenols do not improve stallion semen parameters during cooling at 4°C

Abstract

Stallion semen storage for artificial insemination is mainly based on liquid cooled storage. In many stallions this technique maintains sperm quality for an extended period of time (24-72 hr) at 7°C. While this technique is commonly used in the horse industry, there can be a decline in fertility in some stallions, due to an inability of their sperm to tolerate the cool storage process. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the effect of two natural antioxidants (epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) at 20, 60 and 120 μm and green tea polyphenols, and p at .001, .01 and .1 mg/ml) on some sperm parameters (sperm motility, viability/acrosome integrity and DNA quality) in extended semen immediately after its collection (T0) and after 2, 6, 24 and 48 hr of cool storage. Two ejaculates from three trotter stallions were analysed after 48 hr of storage at 4°C. No beneficial effect on the analysed parameters was observed: the two antioxidants were not able to improve sperm quality after 48 hr of storage. These results are in agreement with previous findings on the effect of different antioxidants reported by other researches, who have demonstrated that stallion semen keeps good antioxidant capacity after dilution for 24 hr. In conclusion, the positive effect exerted by antioxidant molecules in other species is not confirmed in the equine one.

Impact of glyphosate and its formulation Roundup® on stallion spermatozoa

“…Acrosomal and plasma membrane integrity analysis (FITC-PSA/PI) Sperm acrosome intactness was assessed by Pisum sativum agglutinin (PSA) conjugated with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) (2.5 mg/mL stock solution; 0.5 mg/mL working solution) coupled with PI (2.4mM stock solution) [43].…”

Therapeutic Role of Green Tea Polyphenols in Improving Fertility: A Review

“…The semen antioxidant system is made up of many components, including enzymatic, non-enzymatic, and low molecular weight molecules that provide maximum protection against ROS. An important component in green tea is the catechins, which have higher antioxidant activity than that of vitamin C. In rats, catechins were observed to reduce ROS levels, regulate gene expression, and maintain glucose levels [ 95 , 96 ]. Semen motility in infertile humans is affected by seminal ROS [ 97 ].…”

Assessment of an open-access CASA software for bovine and buffalo sperm motility analysis

“…Evidence of positive correlations between motion parameters and sperm viability or mitochondrial activity consolidate the validation of BGM system. The associations between motility parameters and membrane integrity or mitochondrial activity of mammalian spermatozoa has been indeed proved numerous times (O'connell et al, 2002;Plaza Davila et al, 2015;Bucci et al, 2017). Similar positive correlations between both sperm viability or percentage of spermatozoa with HMMP and cattle TM and PM were found with HTM and BGM systems.…”

“…In the first moment, the development of this system and following implementation enabled various research studies on sperm motility of fish and marine invertebrate species (Purchase and Earle;Neumann et al, 2017;Caldeira et al, 2019). Only recently, the plugin was tested in mammalian species (Boryshpolets et al, 2015;Elsayed et al, 2015;Bucci et al, 2017;Giaretta et al, 2017). The only study performed on cattle spermatozoa modified the existing plugin to analyze motion of sperm cells in microfluidic environments (Elsayed et al, 2015).…”