Does Cryopreservation Affect the Morphology of Spermatozoa? – A Study in Rats

Author(s)

Kamala, K., Divya, K., Pallavi, C., Thyaga, R. K.

Author's Affiliation

Abstract

The cryopreservation is an effective method used for germ cells for archiving valuable strains in biomedical research to the future of nature using successful cryopreservation tools. Despite the usefulness of it, cryopreservation may lead to deleterious changes. Henceforth the objective of study was to evaluate the changes that occur in rat sperm function and morphology during cryopreservation. The morphological changes of spermatozoa after cryopreservation and thaw were assessed by light microscopy. The epididymal rat spermatozoa were subjected to 15, 30, 45 and 60 days freezing separately, and then determined the motility, count, viability and morphological changes after thawing each sample. The results of thawed samples showed that the cryopreservation has significant effect on decrease in sperm motility (P < 0.01) to more than 50% and increase in percentage of dead or membrane damaged sperm formation.  Therefore the frozen and thawed samples had showed decreased count and viability of spermatozoa (P < 0.01).  Our research findings have suggest that cryopreservation makes rat spermatozoa susceptible to external and internal damage, in particular during cooling process. Thus, protection of sperm from these effects should give better results in reproduction and may help for biomedical research. Considering these results the question of entry of DNA/Chromosome into ovum is through sperm or by naked chromosomes during fertilization in compliment to the genes of ovum should be answered. This may provide clues to the future generations.

Keywords

Count, Cryopreservation, Epididymis, Motility, Rat, Sperm

Cite This Article

Kamala, K., Divya, K., Pallavi, C., & Thyaga, R. K. Does Cryopreservation Affect the Morphology of Spermatozoa? A Study in Rats. International Journal for Pharmaceutical Research Scholars (IJPRS), 2(4), 405-413.