Published June 15, 2014 | Version v1
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ASSESSMENT OF COPPER CONTENT IN SEMEN AND ITS EFFECT ON THE SPERMATOZOA MOTILITY

Creators

  • 1. Department of Animal Physiology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences, Slovak University of Agriculture, Nitra, Slovak Republic
  • 2. Department of Animal Physiology and Toxicology, Faculty of Geography and Biology, Pedagogical University, Cracow, Poland

Description

The general objective of this in vitro study was at first to evaluate copper (Cu) content in the cell sediment and seminal plasma fraction and compare their relationship with basic motility characteristics and secondly expand the knowledge of its impact on the fertilization potential of the spermatozoa. Semen samples were collected from 12 breeding bulls. The motility analysis was carried out using the Computer Assisted Semen Analysis (CASA) system. The mean value for the percentage of motile spermatozoa (MOT) was 91.24±5.17% and the progressive motility of the spermatozoa (PROG) as 88.58±5.85%. Subsequently, the samples were centrifuged to obtain the seminal plasma fraction and cell sediment. The seminal plasma Cu concentrations were analyzed by UV/VIS spectrophotometry. The total Cu concentration of the seminal plasma was 0.23 μg/mL. The analysis by the flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry (FAAS) showed that the average cell sediment Cu concentration was 0.0014 μg/mL. The correlation analysis revealed a moderate positive correlations between MOT and seminal plasma Cu concentration (rp=0.504; P>0.05) as well as between PROG and Cu content in the seminal plasma (rp=0.410; P>0.05). Copper in the cell sediment positively affected both MOT (rp=0.265) and PROG (rp=0.227), however, no significant differences were found (P>0.05). Conclusions of this study clearly
indicated that Cu is important for the preservation of spermatozoa motility. The obtained results proved higher level of Cu in the seminal plasma, which seems representative of cumulative exposures of this trace element. Based on these results, we can conclude that the evaluation of total content of Cu in the whole semen is an important factor for determining the fertilization potential
of spermatozoa.

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1. KŇAŽICKÁ et al. 2014 Vol. 63, No. 1-2 pp. 1-12.pdf

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