226 DAY LENGTH DOES NOT AFFECT LIVE SPERM NUCLEAR SHAPE IN THE STALLION

Fourier harmonic analysis (FHA) of sperm nuclei is a precise and objective method to evaluate shape of the sperm head, with the calculated harmonic amplitudes highly related to male fertility. The FHA approach has been developed for use in the bull and the boar but has not yet been applied to the stallion. Direct utilization of the previous fluorescent approaches to identify and image live sperm nuclei in the bull cannot be used in the stallion due to the increased thickness of the post-nuclear region and thin anterior region of the sperm head. An alternative approach was developed in which live and motile sperm were isolated after filtration of an ejaculate through a Sephadex G-15 column. The resulting live sperm were sonicated briefly to separate tails and heads. The heads were isolated on a 45–90 discontinous Percoll gradient, fixed with paraformaldehyde (0.2%), centrifuged onto glass slides, and dried. The slides were then stained with eosin (1%), cleared with water, and dried again; Permount was added, followed by a coverslip. Slides were imaged with phase contrast microscopy; digital images were acquired and evaluated with custom software to identify perimeter coordinates of sperm nuclei. The perimeter coordinates were next converted to Fourier harmonic amplitudes 0–5 (HA0–HA5) using trigonomic regression at 1 degree equally spaced angles. Fertility of bulls were previously reported to be most related to changes in HA0 and HA2 but no information is available on stallions. As fertility data on stallions is limited, to evaluate FHA in the equine, the day length (period of light) was increased in January from the ambient 9–10 h to 16. Semen samples from 5 light horse stallions were collected at weekly intervals for 8 weeks following the increase in light. It was hypothesized that fertility would increase for each stallion over the course of the experiment, as testosterone increases and spermatogenesis improves with increasing day length, as previously shown. Each week semen samples were evaluated for FHA live sperm nuclei, as described above. All parameter means and variations were recorded on 100 randomly selected sperm nuclei per semen sample evaluated. There was no difference relative to week 0 in the least squares mean or SD of HA0, HA1, HA2, HA3, HA4, or HA5 over the 8 weeks (P > 0.05). However stallions were consistently different for all HAs (P < 0.05). The overall mean HA0–HA5 � SEM were 1.973 � 0.38, 0.087 � 0.002, 0.721 � 0.021, 0.051 � 0.004, 0.208 � 0.014, and 0.031 � 0.002, respectively. Even though libido increased during the experiment, confirming the effect of light on the stallions, no affect on sperm nuclear shape or its variation was detected using FHA. Based on work in other species involving numbers of sperm inseminated, if large numbers of sperm from these stallions were inseminated in mares, we would predict no change in fertility due to season. Further research is needed to confirm this prediction.

In vitro capacitation of bovine spermatozoa: role of intracellular calcium

The development of successful methods of in vitro fertilization for bovine oocytes has advanced the bovine as a model for reproductive technology. The discovery of heparin as a capacitating agent has made it possible for investigators to have an inexpensive, readily available supply of bovine gametes for experimentation in reproductive biotechnologies such as gene transfer and cloning. The central event that mammalian sperm must undergo before being able to fertilize an oocyte is capacitation. Although we have methods which lead to efficient in vitro fertilization, we still lack understanding about the molecular mechanisms of capacitation. While numerous events occur during capacitation, it appears that regulation of intracellular Ca2+ (Ca(i)) is one of the most important. We found that the influx of Ca2+ into sperm during the first 2 hours of incubation is critical to heparin-induced capacitation. This is a period during capacitation when Ca(i) has not yet increased. We propose that during capacitation, the initial influx of Ca2+ into sperm is used to fill an intracellular Ca2+ store located in the acrosome. We found that thapsigargin, an inhibitor of an acrosomal Ca2+-ATPase, can stimulate capacitated sperm to acrosome react, trigger the opening of a store-operated calcium channel in the plasma membrane and has greater effects on capacitated sperm compared to noncapacitated sperm. An increase in intracellular Ca2+ was also detected in the anterior sperm head during capacitation, suggesting the loading of the acrosome with Ca2+. These observations may be important in the development of new methods for capacitation and understanding the death of sperm after cryopreservation.

Effect of bovine sperm separation by either swim-up or Percoll method on success of in vitro fertilization and early embryonic development

The objectives of these experiments were to characterize separation of frozen-thawed bovine spermatozoa on a Percoll gradient and then to compare sperm separation by either a swim-up or Percoll gradient procedure for the ability of spermatozoa to fertilize oocytes in vitro. The Percoll gradient was a 45 and 90% discontinuous gradient. Initial experiments found that centrifugation of semen on the Percoll gradient for 15 min at 700 g was sufficient to obtain optimal recovery of motile spermatozoa. Most of the nonmotile spermatozoa were recovered at the interface of the 45 and 90% Percoll layers, while the motile spermatozoa were primarily in the sperm pellet at the bottom of the gradient. When frozen-thawed semen from each of 7 bulls was separated by swimup, a mean +/- SEM of 9% +/- 1 of the motile spermatozoa were recovered after the procedure. In contrast, more spermatozoa were recovered after Percoll gradient separation (P < 0.05), with 40% +/- 4 of the motile spermatozoa recovered. The effect of separation procedure on in vitro fertilization found swim-up separated spermatozoa penetrated a mean +/- SEM of 74% +/- 5 of the oocytes, while fewer oocytes were penetrated by Percoll separated spermatozoa at 52% +/- 8 (P < 0.05). There was no effect of the separation procedure on the rates of polyspermy as measured by sperm/penetrated ova, with a mean +/- SEM of 1.25 +/-.09 for swim-up separated spermatozoa and 1.14 +/-.07 for Percoll separated spermatozoa (P>0.05). A carry over of Percoll into the fertilization medium with the Percoll separated spermatozoa was found not the cause for the decreased penetration of oocytes by these spermatozoa. In 2 of 3 bulls tested, the decreased penetration of oocytes by Percoll separated spermatozoa could be overcome by increasing the sperm concentration during fertilization from 1 x 10(6) to 5 x 10(6)/ml. When development of embryos fertilized by either swim-up or Percoll separated spermatozoa was compared for the semen from 2 bulls, a difference in cleavage rate was found in favor of swim-up separated spermatozoa (P < 0.05), but there was no effect of separation procedure on development (Day 7) to the morula + blastocyst or blastocyst stage (P>0.05). The disadvantages of the Percoll procedure could easily be overcome and the procedure was faster and yielded a six-fold greater recovery of motile spermatozoa than the swim-up method.

Inhibition of protein kinases after an induced calcium transient causes transition of bovine oocytes to embryonic cycles without meiotic completion

We have examined the response of bovine oocytes matured in vitro for 24 hr to parthenogenic activation using compounds that increase intracellular calcium (ionomycin) or inhibit protein phosphorylation (6-dimethylaminopurine, DMAP). Treatment with ionomycin alone caused resumption of meiosis (57.8 +/- 7.8%) but not pronuclear formation (8.9 +/- 7.3%). DMAP alone did not cause resumption of meiosis or pronuclear formation. Sequential treatment with ionomycin (5 microM for 4 min) immediately followed by DMAP (1.9 mM for 5 hr) resulted in activation that led to pronuclear formation (80.5 +/- 13.1%). Completion of meiosis, however, was bypassed as evidenced by only one polar body and one pronucleus present in activated parthenogenones. It was necessary to incubate the oocytes for at least 3 hr in DMAP to obtain high rates of activation (76.6 +/- 9.8%) and development to blastocysts (21.1 +/- 1.5%). Temporal separation of the two treatments resulted in a decrease in oocytes with one pronucleus and one polar body (uniformly diploid parthenogenones) and an increase in a mixture of diploid and haploid parthenogenones since DMAP was capable of causing transition to interphase of all chromatin configurations after anaphase commenced and prior to metaphase arrest. Parthenotes produced with ionomycin and DMAP that developed to the blastocyst stage had high cell numbers (70 to 88 cells) and were able to cause extended cycles in 33.3% of recipient cattle after nonsurgical transfer to the uterus. Response of the bovine oocyte arrested in metaphase II to different activation stimuli was also found to show age-dependent changes in pattern of activation response and developmental competence.

Differences in the role of cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate during capacitation of bovine sperm by heparin or oviduct fluid

Capacitation is an important maturational event in the life of a spermatozoan that allows the sperm to undergo a stimulus-induced acrosome reaction. Bovine sperm can be induced to undergo capacitation in vitro by heparin or oviduct fluid, and capacitation can be inhibited by glucose. We found that glucose did not interfere with 3H-heparin binding to sperm. Glucose inhibition of capacitation could be reversed in a dose-dependent manner by 8-bromo-cAMP or by the phosphodiesterase inhibitors isobutylmethylxanthine or caffeine, with ED50S of 25, 32, and 183 microM, respectively. The maximal effect of 8-bromo-cAMP on capacitation was during the first 2 h of a 4-h incubation. Sperm cAMP increased during capacitation with heparin from an initial value of 4.1 +/- 0.1 to 7.3 +/- 1.1 pmol cAMP/20 x 10(6) sperm at 4 h of incubation. Control sperm cAMP at 4 h increased only to 4.9 +/- 0.8 pmol cAMP/20 x 10(6) sperm. There were both similarities and differences in the characteristics of capacitation by heparin or oviduct fluid. Both glucose and protamine sulfate were found to suppress the heparin-dependent cAMP increase and inhibit capacitation. Capacitation by oviduct fluid was inhibited by either glucose or protamine sulfate. A small increase in sperm cAMP was associated with capacitation by oviduct fluid but was not affected by glucose or protamine sulfate.

Oocyte maturation, fertilization and embryo development in vitro and in vivo in the gaur (Bos gaurus)

A study was conducted to evaluate the potential of rescuing immature oocytes from the ovaries of an endangered wild bovid, the gaur (Bos gaurus). Recovered, immature gaur oocytes (n = 59) placed in culture were evaluated for: (1) nuclear maturation after 22 h of culture, (2) fertilization with either thawed homologous (gaur) or heterologous (Bos taurus) spermatozoa 18 h after insemination and (3) embryo development. Gaur oocytes (n = 6) evaluated by fixation and staining at 22 h had all matured to metaphase II in vitro. Insemination of gaur oocytes in vitro resulted in normal fertilization (defined as the presence of spermatozoa head or two pronuclei) and embryo development to the two- and four-cell stage of 53.6% (15 of 28) and 50.0% (9 of 18), respectively, using homologous spermatozoa. The incidence of normal fertilization of in vitro matured (IVM) gaur oocytes with heterologous spermatozoa was 53.8% (7 of 13). Insemination of domestic cow oocytes in vitro resulted in normal fertilization and embryo development of 41.7% (45 of 108) and 60.0% (12 of 20), respectively, using heterologous spermatozoa. Two of four gaur embryos (50%) developed to the blastocyst stage by day 7. Embryo transfer of these two conspecific gaur blastocysts into two Holstein recipients resulted in one confirmed pregnancy. One live-born calf was delivered by Caesarean section 308 days after embryo transfer. These results demonstrate the potential of combined IVM and IVF for recovering immature germplasm from an endangered species. Specifically, immature gaur ovarian oocytes are capable of in vitro maturation and fertilization with thawed homologous spermatozoa.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Effect of sulfated glycoconjugates on capacitation and the acrosome reaction of bovine and hamster spermatozoa

The effects of sulfated glycoconjugates on the preparation of mammalian sperm for fertilization were investigated. The three sulfated glycoconjugates tested were heparin, dextran sulfate, and the fucose sulfate glycoconjugate (FSG) from the sea urchin egg jelly coat. In vivo, FSG induces the acrosome reaction in sea urchin sperm. Bovine sperm were found to be capacitated by heparin and FSG as judged both by ability of lysophosphatidylcholine (LC) to induce an acrosome reaction and by ability to fertilize bovine oocytes in vitro. The mechanism by which heparin or FSG capacitated bovine sperm appeared similar, since glucose inhibited capacitation by both glycoconjugates. In contrast to effects on bovine sperm, heparin and FSG induced the acrosome reaction in capacitated hamster sperm. When hamster sperm were incubated under noncapacitating conditions, heparin had no effect on capacitation or the acrosome reaction. Three molecular weights (MW) of dextran sulfate (5,000, 8,000, 500,000) were found to capacitate bovine sperm as judged by the ability of LC to induce an acrosome reaction. Whereas bovine sperm incubated with 5,000 or 8,000 MW dextran sulfate fertilized more bovine oocytes than control sperm (P less than 0.05), sperm treated with 500,000 MW dextran sulfate failed to penetrate oocytes. The high-MW dextran sulfate appeared to interact with the zona pellucida and/or sperm to prevent sperm binding. Results suggest that sulfated glycoconjugates may prepare sperm for fertilization across a wide range of species.

Capacitation of bovine sperm by heparin: inhibitory effect of glucose and role of intracellular pH

Bovine sperm incubated with heparin for 7.5-8.5 h underwent an acrosome reaction in the absence but not the presence of glucose (5 mM). When sperm were incubated under capacitating conditions with heparin for 4 h, glucose inhibited sperm penetration of oocytes (p less than 0.01) and lysophosphatidylcholine (LC) induced acrosome reactions. Addition of glucose for the last 0.25 h of a 4.25-h incubation with heparin had no effect on ability of sperm to acrosome-react in response to LC. Nonmetabolizable sugars 3-O-methyl glucose, 2-deoxyglucose, sucrose, and sorbitol did not inhibit capacitation as judged by sperm sensitivity to LC or fertilization (p greater than 0.05), but capacitation was inhibited by the glycolyzable substrates glucose, mannose, and fructose (p less than 0.05). The glycolytic inhibitor, fluoride, reversed glucose inhibition of capacitation in a dose-dependent manner similar to its effect on glucose uptake by sperm. Extracellular pH declined from 7.4 to 7.2 during a 4-h incubation of sperm with heparin and glucose. The decline of extracellular pH during sperm incubation with glucose did not affect capacitation, since only an extracellular pH below 7.02 inhibited capacitation. The intracellular pH (pHi) of sperm increased 0.40 units over a 5-h incubation under capacitating conditions. The change in pHi was inhibited by glucose. Incubation of sperm with heparin and glucose for 12 h resulted in capacitated sperm as judged by both LC sensitivity and fertilizing ability. These studies demonstrate that glycolyzable substrates delay capacitation of bovine sperm and suggest the effect is in delaying an alkalinization of pHi.

Capacitation of bovine spermatozoa by oviduct fluid

Oviduct fluid collected from chronically cannulated oviducts of heifers was evaluated for its effect on capacitation of bovine sperm in vitro. Capacitation was determined by the ability of sperm to fertilize bovine oocytes in vitro and to undergo an acrosome reaction (AR) upon exposure to lysophosphatidylcholine (LC). After incubation of sperm with 0-25% (v/v) estrual oviduct fluid (collected +/- 1 day from estrus) for 4 h, addition of LC (100 micrograms/ml) for an additional 0.25 h resulted in an increasing percentage of acrosome-reacted sperm as the concentration of oviduct fluid increased. Sperm incubated 4 h with 25% estrual oviduct fluid fertilized more oocytes than sperm incubated in medium alone (p less than 0.05) but was not different from sperm incubated with 10 micrograms/ml heparin (p greater than 0.05). Glucose inhibited the ability of LC to induce ARs in sperm incubated 4 h with heparin or estrual oviduct fluid. Incubation of sperm with 25% oviduct fluid collected at various days over the estrous cycle demonstrated that peak capacitating activity was found at estrus but was also present +/- 1 day from estrus. The active capacitating factor in oviduct fluid was found to be heat stable. In addition, when extraction procedures were applied in sequential order, oviduct fluid capacitating activity was resistant to protease digestion, precipitable by ethanol, size-excluded by Sephadex G-25, and destroyed by nitrous acid. These results suggest that a heparin-like glycosaminoglycan from the oviduct is a potential in vivo capacitating agent in the bovine.

Bovine in vitro fertilization with frozen-thawed semen

A procedure to obtain high and repeatable fertilization frequencies for bovine in vitro fertilization (IVF) with frozen-thawed sperm was developed. IVF frequency of in vitro matured oocytes was increased by a swimup sperm separation procedure (P=0.01) or treatment of sperm with the glycosaminoglycan heparin (P=0.0001), but the two factors did not interact (P=0.23). Heparin was the most important factor in increasing IVF frequencies. The fertilization frequency was not affected by the batch of oocytes used (P=0.38), but bull effects were present (P<0.05). Within a bull, the IVF system was highly repeatable and varied between trials no more than +/- 12% in fertilization frequency with an overall fertilization frequency of 299 379 (79%) on four trials over four bulls. In vivo matured oocytes fertilized in vitro were transferred to ewe or heifer oviducts. Morulae or blastocysts were recovered from ewes after four to five days, while conceptuses were present in the bovine after 25 days (diagnosed by ultrasound). Embryonic development from the IVF system either pre- or postimplantation was normal.

Effect of heparin and chondroitin sulfate on the acrosome reaction and fertility of bovine sperm in vitro

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) were reported to induce acrosome reactions (AR) in epididymal and ejaculated bovine sperm (4,5). The GAGs chondroitin sulfate A (CS-A) and heparin were tested on ejaculated bovine sperm for their ability to increase in vitro fertilization (IVF) frequencies. Regardless of treatment, a sperm-egg incubation time of 18 hr was sufficient to achieve maximal rates of fertilization. The IVF frequency of sperm incubated 6 hr with 10 mug/ml heparin (116 173 , 67%) was increased (P<0.05) above control levels (56 181 , 31%); however, 10 mug/ml CS-A (56 164 , 34%) was without effect (P>0.05). In contrast to previous reports, CS-A did not (P>0.05) induce AR in ejaculated (9.5-hr incubation) or epididymal sperm (22.5-hr incubation). Linear increases in fertilization frequency (40% to 81%; P=0.001) and AR (9% to 32%; P</=0.05) occurred with time of sperm exposure to heparin (15 sec to 6 hr) suggesting a direct effect of heparin on sperm. Glucose interfered with the effect of heparin on sperm. These data show heparin can prepare sperm for AR and fertilization in vitro and suggest that heparin-like material present in the female bovine reproductive tract may play a role in vivo in sperm capacitation and fertilization.