Taurine effect on human sperm parameters during microdroplet vitrification procedure

Background: Despite advances in vitrification techniques for sperm cryo-preservation, cryo-damages of sperm caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation continue to be major challenges in the implementation of this technique. The present study investigates the effects of taurine as an anti-oxidant agent on reactive oxygen species (ROS), hyaluronan-binding assay (HBA), acrosome reaction (AR) and heat shock proteinA2 (HSPA2) during sperm microdroplet vitrification technique.Methods: Fifty normospermic semen samples were first processed using density gradient centrifugation (DGC) and then divided into equal fresh and vitrification groups. The vitrification groups were classified to 3 subgroups: the first group was the vitrified control group without taurine, and the other 2 subgroups were treated with 25mM and 50mM taurine, respectively. The control and treated groups were then vitrified using the microdroplet technique. Thereafter, classical sperm parameters, hyaluronan-binding assay (HBA), acrosome reaction (AR) and heat shock proteinA2 (HSPA2) were studied in fresh (unvitrified) group and compared statistically with those vitrified groups after warming.Result: In all vitrified subgroups, sperm motility reduced (p Conclusion: Taurine, especially with dosage of 50 mM, protects the sperm against ROS effects such as abnormal morphology, HBA dysfunction, HSPA2 degradation and increasing acrosome reaction during microdroplete vitrification procedure.

کلیدواژه ها:

Acrosome reaction ، Heat shock protein A2 ، Hyaluronic binding assay ، Taurine ، Sperm vitrification