Abstract: 129

ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS OF FLAVONOIDS ON THE MOTILITY OF EXTENDED COOLED CAPRINE SPERMATOZOA.

PH Purdy¹ , SA Ericsson¹ , RE Dodson¹ , KL Sternes² , DL Garner^{3 *}
Division of Range Animal Science, Sul Ross State University, Alpine, TX ¹
Department of Biology, Sul Ross State University, Alpine, TX ²
School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Nevada, Reno, NV ³

The objective of this study was to determine if the flavonoids, silibinin and catechin, were capable of maintaining the motility of extended cooled goat spermatozoa. Semen was collected from 7 goats using electro-ejaculation. Samples were aliquoted (60 µl) into replicates of 3 and placed into 9% non-fat dried skim milk extender (120 µl) containing 0 (control), 25, 50, 75 or 100 µM silibinin or catechin. Extended samples were slowly cooled to 5°C prior to microscopic analyses (250X) of the percentage of motile spermatozoa at 24, 48, 72 and 96 hr. The percentage data were arcsine transformed and analyzed using ANOVA for differences among flavonoid levels. The percentage of motile spermatozoa at 48 hr were significantly lower in samples containing 25 µM (mean ± SD: 63.1% ± 16.0, P <0.009) or 100 µM (57.8% ± 19.4, P < 0.002) of silibinin when compared to samples with no silibinin (72.4% ± 9.6). The samples containing 25 µM (42.7% ± 21.7, P < 0.03) or 75 µM (43.2% ± 22.5, P < 0.002) silibinin exhibited higher sperm motilities at 96 hr than control samples (34.0% ± 19.8). Extenders containing 25 µM (72.0% ± 11.8, P < 0.03), 75 µM (70.4% ± 17.1, P < 0.03) or 100 µM (73.3% ± 12.4, P < 0.01) of catechin exhibited higher sperm motility at 72 hr than the control (60.4% ± 19.7). Similarly, samples extended with 25 µM (56.6% ± 11.6, P < 0.0002), 50 µM (53.3% ± 15.1, P < 0.004), 75 µM (55.2% ± 18.9, P < 0.003) or 100 µM (63.7% ± 13.3, P < 0.0001) of catechin at 96 hr retained greater motility than the control (34.0% ± 19.8%). These results suggest that silibinin and catechin have both a time and dose related effect on the motility of extended cooled goat spermatozoa.

    This abstract is being presented on Sunday, August 1 at 8:00 AM to 10:15 AM at CUB 2nd Floor Ballroom.