The enhancement of the ability of mouse sperm to survive freezing and thawing by the use of high concentrations of glycerol and the presence of an Escherichia coli membrane preparation (Oxyrase) to lower the oxygen concentration.

The cryobiological preservation of mouse spermatozoa has presented difficulties in the form of poor motilities or irreproducibility. We have hypothesized several underlying problems. One is that published studies have used concentrations of the cryoprotectant glycerol that are substantially lower (<0.3 M) than the approximately 1 M concentrations that are optimal for most mammalian cells. Another may arise from the known high susceptibility of mouse sperm to free radical damage. We have been able to obtain high motilities in 0.8 M glycerol provided that the exposure time is held to approximately 5 min to minimize toxicity and provided that the glycerol is added and removed stepwise to minimize osmotic shock. Since free radical damage in mouse sperm is proportional to the oxygen concentrations, we have determined the consequences of reducing the oxygen to <3% of atmospheric by maintaining the sperm in contact with an Escherichia coli membrane preparation, Oxyrase, from the moment of collection throughout the assessment of motility. Prior studies have shown that the procedure significantly reduces damage from centrifugation and osmotic shock. In the experiments reported here we obtained approximately 50% motility relative to untreated controls when suspensions containing 3.8% Oxyrase were exposed approximately 5 min to a solution of 0.8 M glycerol and 0.17 M (10%) raffinose in a supplemented PBS and then frozen at approximately 25 degrees C/min to -75 degrees C. In the absence of Oxyrase, the normalized motility dropped to 31%. The protection by Oxyrase was in part a consequence of minimizing centrifugation damage, but in part it reflected a reduction in freeze-thaw damage. Preliminary experiments indicate that the number of motile sperm after cryopreservation in Oxyrase is higher when the sperm are collected without swim-up than when they are collected by swim-up. This is in part due to the fact that more cells are collected in the absence of swim-up and in part due to a greater protective effect of Oxyrase on those cells. The minimum temperature in these initial experiments was limited to -75 degrees C to avoid the potential contribution of other injurious factors between -75 and -196 degrees C.