| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rober040{at}umn.edu.
Porcine seminal plasma (SP) has been shown to contain factors that have a decapacitative or capacitation inhibiting effect on sperm. The objective of this study was to compare the capacitative changes observed in cooled sperm with those seen in sperm after in vitro capacitation and to determine if SP could prevent these changes. Sperm were subjected to incubation or to slow cooling under noncapacitating or capacitating conditions. The effect of SP on protein tyrosine phosphorylation and the ability of the sperm to undergo an acrosome reaction (AR) were determined. Cooled sperm displayed an increased level of tyrosine phosphorylation and a higher percentage of induced AR sperm compared to incubated sperm. The addition of SP inhibited the level of ARs that occur during incubation and cooling. These results suggest that cooling of sperm does augment the capacitative changes in sperm and that SP contains a factor(s) that effectively prevents these changes.
Key words: Cryopreservation
Semen
Sperm
capacitation
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH |