Cryopreservation of Equine Sperm: Optimal Cooling Rates in the Presence and Absence of Cryoprotective Agents Determined Using Differential Scanning Calorimetry
Optimization of equine sperm cryopreservation protocols requires an understanding of the water permeability characteristics and volumetric shrinkage response during freezing. A cell-shape-independent differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) technique was used to measure the volumetric shrinkage durin...
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Published in | Biology of reproduction Vol. 66; no. 1; pp. 222 - 231 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Madison, WI
Society for the Study of Reproduction
01.01.2002
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Optimization of equine sperm cryopreservation protocols requires an understanding of the water permeability characteristics
and volumetric shrinkage response during freezing. A cell-shape-independent differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) technique
was used to measure the volumetric shrinkage during freezing of equine sperm suspensions at cooling rates of 5°C/min and 20°C/min
in the presence and absence of cryoprotective agents (CPAs), i.e., in the Kenney extender and in the lactose-EDTA extender,
respectively. The equine sperm was modeled as a cylinder of length 36.5 μm and a radius of 0.66 μm with an osmotically inactive
cell volume (V b ) of 0.6V o , where V o is the isotonic cell volume. Sperm samples were collected using water-insoluble Vaseline in the artificial vagina and slow
cooled at â¤0.3°C/min in an Equitainer-I from 37°C to 4°C. By fitting a model of water transport to the experimentally obtained
DSC volumetric shrinkage data, the best-fit membrane permeability parameters ( L pg and E Lp ) were determined. The combined best-fit parameters of water transport (at both 5°C/min and 20°C/min) in Kenney extender (absence
of CPAs) are L pg = 0.02 μm min â1 atm â1 and E Lp = 32.7 kcal/mol with a goodness-of-fit parameter R 2 = 0.96, and the best-fit parameters in the lactose-EDTA extender (the CPA medium) are L pg [cpa] = 0.008 μm min â1 atm â1 and E Lp [cpa] = 12.1 kcal/mol with R 2 = 0.97. These parameters suggest that the optimal cooling rate for equine sperm is â¼29°C/min and is â¼60°C/min in the Kenney
extender and in the lactose-EDTA extender. These rates are predicted assuming no intracellular ice formation occurs and that
the â¼5% of initial osmotically active water volume trapped inside the cells at â30°C will form innocuous ice on further cooling.
Numerical simulations also showed that in the lactose-EDTA extender, equine sperm trap â¼3.4% and â¼7.1% of the intracellular
water when cooled at 20°C/min and 100°C/min, respectively. As an independent test of this prediction, the percentage of viable
equine sperm was obtained after freezing at 6 different cooling rates (2°C/min, 20°C/min, 50°C/min, 70°C/min, 130°C/min, and
200°C/min) to â80°C in the CPA medium. Sperm viability was essentially constant between 20°C/min and 130°C/min. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0006-3363 1529-7268 |
DOI: | 10.1095/biolreprod66.1.222 |