Effect of resveratrol treatment on apoptosis and apoptotic pathways during boar semen freezing

AbstractResveratrol (3,5,4'-trihydroxystilbene, RSV) has been widely used in mammalian cells, but whether it can be used during freezing boar semen is still unknown. The effects of RSV treatment during boar semen freezing on its anti-freezing ability, apoptosis, and possible apoptotic pathways were observed in this study. Sperm motility, mitochondrial membrane potential ( ΔΨm), adenosine triphosphate (ATP) content, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL)-positive apoptotic state, and messenger RNA (mRNA) expression levels of apoptotic genes involved in different apoptotic pathways after freezing with or without RSV treatment were tested. The results showed that: (1) Compared with fresh sperm, the motility, normal acrosome rate, and plasma membrane integrity rate of frozen boar sperm decreased significantly (P<0.05), and RSV did not significantly increase the sperm motility (0.44 vs. 0.40,P>0.05), but it did significantly improve the normal acrosome rate (57.65% vs. 47.00%,P<0.05) and plasma membrane integrity rate (46.67% vs. 38.85%,P<0.05). (2) After freezing, most boar sperm showed low mitochondrial ΔΨm. RSV treatment could increase the rate of high mitochondrial ΔΨm of boar sperm. (3) RSV treatment significantly decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels (58.65% vs. 88.41%,P<0.05) and increased the ATP content (0.49 μmol/L vs. 0.25 μmol/L,P<0.05) of boar sperm during freezing. (4) The apoptotic rate ...
Source: Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B. - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: research