Odinius Timea Sarah, Siuda Mathias, Lautner Matthias, Leiding Claus, Neuner Stefan, Bollwein Heinrich, Malama Eleni
Clinic of Reproductive Medicine, Department for Farm Animals, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 260, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
AgroVet-Strickhof, Eschikon 27, CH-8315 Lindau, Switzerland.
Vet Sci. 2024 Dec 23;11(12):678. doi: 10.3390/vetsci11120678.
Sperm viability is routinely assessed for the quality control of cryopreserved bovine sperm batches but is not usually conclusive regarding their fertilizing potential. In this study, we investigated the fertility predictive value of bull sperm viability in combination with DNA integrity or the functional status of viable sperm. In addition to sperm viability, we flow cytometrically assessed the percentage of sperm with high DNA fragmentation index (%DFI) and the fraction of viable sperm with low intracellular Ca content and functional mitochondria using the Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay and a five-color staining panel in 791 and 733 cryopreserved batches with non-return rate (NRR) records after ≥100 first services, respectively. Using linear mixed-effects models and conditional inference trees, we examined the potential of sperm viability combined with either DNA integrity or the functional status of viable sperm to predict the batch-specific NRR. Batches with a %DFI of ≤6.86% were more likely to have a NRR of >60%, whereas %DFI values of >6.86% were more likely to be associated with a 55-60% or lower NRR. Combining post-thaw viability with the functional status of viable sperm did not reliably predict the NRR of individual batches. Concluding, the incorporation of DNA integrity assessment can considerably improve sperm fertility prognostics.
精子活力通常用于评估冷冻保存的牛精子批次的质量控制，但对于其受精潜力通常没有定论。在本研究中，我们调查了公牛精子活力与DNA完整性或活精子功能状态相结合的生育预测价值。除了精子活力外，我们还使用精子染色质结构分析和五色染色板，通过流式细胞术分别评估了791个和733个冷冻保存批次中具有高DNA碎片化指数（%DFI）的精子百分比以及细胞内钙含量低且线粒体功能正常的活精子比例，这些批次在≥100次首次输精后有不返情率（NRR）记录。使用线性混合效应模型和条件推断树，我们研究了精子活力与DNA完整性或活精子功能状态相结合预测批次特异性NRR的潜力。%DFI≤6.86%的批次更有可能具有>60%的NRR，而%DFI值>6.86%更有可能与55 - 60%或更低的NRR相关。将解冻后活力与活精子功能状态相结合并不能可靠地预测单个批次的NRR。总之，纳入DNA完整性评估可以显著改善精子生育预后。
