Childhood cancer incidence, especially in high-income countries, has led to a focus on preserving fertility in this vulnerable population. The common treatments, such as radiation and certain chemotherapeutic agents, though effective, pose a risk to fertility. For adult women, established techniques like embryo and egg freezing are standard, requiring ovarian stimulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOvarian tissue cryopreservation is gaining importance as a successful method to restore fertility to girls and young women at high risk of sterility. However, there are concerns regarding the safety of transplantation after ovarian tissue cryopreservation due to the high risk of reintroducing cancer cells and causing disease recurrence. In these cases, the development of culture systems that support oocyte development from the primordial follicle stage is required.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: ProAKAP4 is synthetized as a precursor polypeptide that must be converted into mature AKAP4 in living spermatozoa and is considered as a functional marker of spermatozoa. The gene is well-conserved in mammals although uncharacterized in Camelidae. In the present study, we investigate the expression metabolism of proAKAP4 and AKAP4 proteins and evaluate their seasonal dynamics relative to semen quality in dromedary camels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study evaluated the effects of freezing extenders, cryoprotectants and their concentrations, presence of Orvus Es Paste and freezing rates for cryopreserving dromedary camel sperm. Semen (five males; 2 ejaculates/male) was frozen in one of the following extenders (Green Buffer or INRA96 ), cryoprotectants (3 and 6% glycerol or ethylene glycol), with or without Orvus Es Paste and freezing at two different heights (1 and 4 cm) above liquid nitrogen. Sperm motility recovery parameters were evaluated post-thaw (0 and 1 hr), vitality and acrosome integrity (0 hr).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA total of 184 dromedary camel embryos were vitrified using a novel vitrification kit specifically developed for camel embryos. These embryos were vitrified using a 3-step process by exposing them to vitrification solutions (VS) containing 20% foetal calf serum (FCS) with (+) or without (-) the addition of bovine serum albumin (BSA). Embryos were then further divided into two groups (
Cryopreservation is stressful to sperm cells inducing an increase in the production of reactive oxygen species and subsequently reducing post-thaw sperm quality. With the present study, there was evaluation of the protective effects of two antioxidants, epigallocatechin (1 mM) and catalase (500 IU/ml), added at thawing, as well as inter-individual variation on quality of cryopreserved dromedary camel spermatozoa. Semen was collected from six males and sperm, selected using single layer centrifugation, were cryopreserved.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different freezing rates and thawing temperatures on the post-thaw quality of camel spermatozoa. Ten ejaculates from five male camels were frozen at five different freezing rates, achieved by placing the straws at specific heights above the surface of liquid nitrogen for different lengths of time (4 cm for 15 min; 1 cm for 15 min; 7 cm for 15 min; 7 cm for 5 min + 4 cm for 3 min; 4 cm for 5 min + 1 cm for 3 min) followed by storage in liquid nitrogen. Two thawing temperatures (37° for 30 s and 60 °C for 10 s) were subsequently tested.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArtificial insemination (AI) in domestic animals is an important tool to maximise the use of genetically superior males and thereby insure rapid genetic progress. However, the application of AI in camelids has been hindered by the difficulties involved in collecting, as well as handling the semen due to the viscous nature of the seminal plasma. This review describes the challenges of semen collection and discusses the role of seminal plasma as well as the reasons for the viscosity and how to liquefy it so that ejaculates can be more accurately evaluated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFColloids have been successfully used in a number of species to improve sperm populations for IVF and for cryopreservation The usefulness of Single Layer Centrifugation (SLC) for freezing dromedary camel spermatozoa in two different extenders was evaluated by examining the motility, viability, acrosome status, DNA integrity, and ability of cryopreserved sperm to penetrate oocytes in vitro in a heterologus IVF system. Two ejaculates from each of five males were divided into four aliquots: two were processed by SLC (selected) while two were centrifuged without colloid (control). Pellets were cryopreserved in Green Buffer or INRA-96® containing 3% glycerol and evaluated at 0 and 1 h post thawed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch into an optimal cryoprotectant, its concentration and equilibration time underlies the successful cryopreservation of dromedary camel spermatozoa. This study assessed the cryo-efficiency of different cryoprotectants, their concentration and equilibration time and any interactions. In experiment 1, semen samples (n = 4 males; 2 ejaculates/male) were frozen using Green Buffer containing one of four cryoprotectants (3% glycerol, ethylene glycol, methyl formamide, dimethyl sulfoxide) and using 4 equilibration times (10 min, 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCholesterol (cholesterol-loaded cyclodextrins: CLC) treatment of dromedary camel sperm prior to freezing enhances cryosurvival. The present study first validated the efficacy of a heterologous zona-free goat oocyte assay (n=115 oocytes) to evaluate camel sperm function in vitro (Experiment 1: n=6 bulls), then examined the effects of CLC treatment (1.5mg/mL CLC; CLC+) versus no treatment (0 CLC) of fresh (Experiment 2: n=4 bulls) and frozen-thawed (Experiment 3: n=5 bulls) camel sperm to penetrate, de-condense and form pro-nuclei in in vitro-matured goat oocytes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn an effort to improve the quality of in vitro produced porcine embryos, the effect of progestagens - progesterone analogues - on the in vitro developmental competence of porcine oocytes was studied. A total of 1421 in vitro matured oocytes, from 4 replicates, were inseminated with frozen-thawed spermatozoa. Progestagens were added to late maturation and embryo cultures (10 IU/ml).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSemen samples collected in 2012 from 1785 boars belonging to five different breeds were recruited from the quality control laboratory of Magapor SL, Spain. These samples came from 43 boar studs and resulted from diluting the ejaculates in commercial semen extenders. Evaluation of the semen sample characteristics (color, smell, pH, osmolality, concentration, motility of sperm cells, agglutination, acrosome integrity, short hypoosmotic swelling test, and abnormal forms) revealed that they met the international standards.
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