Bicarbonate and BSA increase the capacitation pattern and acrosomal exocytosis in boar sperm after 120 min of incubation

Sperm capacitation is a crucial step towards the acquisition of fertilizing capacity. Despite the attempts to mimic the in vivo situation, there is still a lack of standardization in vitro techniques. Bicarbonate and serum albumin (BSA) are routinely used, although controversial results are reported regarding the optimal concentration of each compound. In addition, whether caffeine is needed on in vitro capacitation media in boar sperm remains to be elucidated. Here, 18 boar commercial artificial insemination doses were used to test different concentrations of bicarbonate (19, 37 or 56 mM) in experiment 1, BSA (1.5, 3, 4.5 mg/mL) in experiment 2 and the presence or absence of caffeine (5.15 mM) experiment 3. We analysed at 0, 30 and 120 min of incubation at 38.5 degrees C, 5% CO2: Total motility (TMOT), membrane integrity (VIAB), acrosomal exocytosis (rAcro; H33342/PI/PNA), capacitation status (chlortetracycline staining CTC) and mitochondrial membrane potential (JC-1). The higher concentrations of bicarbonate (37 and 56 mM) decreased TM and VIAB (p < .01) but increased rAcro (p < .01) after 120 min of incubation compared to the fresh control. In contrast, only the BSA concentration of 3 mg/mL reduced the VIAB at 120 min, but all the concentrations tested increased the average of JC-1 and decreased TM (p < .01) throughout incubation compared to the fresh control. Finally, in experiment 3, when boar sperm were incubated in the capacitating media with bicarbonate, BSA and with or without caffeine, the capacitated pattern measured by the CTC technique and rAcro increased after 120 min of incubation (p < .01) compared to fresh control, either in the presence or in the absence of caffeine. In summary, our results suggested that the combination of capacitating components, like bicarbonate and BSA, contributed to increasing the proportion of capacitated boar spermatozoa, mitochondrial membrane potential as well as acrosomal exocytosis. However, caffeine did not significantly influence in vitro sperm capacitation in this species.

Automated summary

This study investigated the capacitation process of boar sperm and found that the combination of bicarbonate and BSA contributed to increasing the proportion of capacitated sperm and mitochondrial membrane potential. However, caffeine did not significantly influence sperm capacitation in boars.