Table 3.
Pre-freeze and post-thaw characteristics of sperm-rich and viscous low sperm papain-treated spermatozoa collected from southern white rhinoceros bulls (n = 6) following treatment, centrifugation and dilution in ButoCrio (Exp 2). Data is pooled over bull and time (0, 1.5 and 3 h post-thaw) ± SEM. Columns which differ in superscript indicate significant differences between sperm-rich control and papain-treated spermatozoa (p < 0.05).
| Time Point | In Vitro Sperm Parameters | Sperm-Rich Control | Viscous Low Sperm Papain-Treated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-freeze | Subjective motility (%) | 78.4 ± 6.66 | 76.6 ± 5.22 |
| Percent viable (%) | 92.0 ± 1.10 | 93.2 ± 0.92 | |
| Percent acrosome intact (%) | 88.2 ± 2.48 | 89.2 ± 1.86 | |
| Percent normal morphology (%) | 82.2 ± 4.59 | 78.0 ± 5.10 | |
| Post-thaw | TM (%) | 38.0 ± 5.50 a | 54.2 ± 6.13 b |
| PM (%) | 21.8 ± 3.99 a | 40.9 ± 5.20 b | |
| VAP (µm/s) | 48.3 ± 4.41 a | 68.8 ± 6.04 b | |
| VCL (µm/s) | 78.0 ± 8.19 a | 101.2 ± 9.45 b | |
| VSL (µm/s) | 37.9 ± 3.38 a | 58.9 ± 4.60 b | |
| LIN (%) | 9.0 ± 2.33 a | 8.15 ± 1.98 b | |
| STR (%) | 81.0 ± 2.04 a | 87.4 ± 1.79 b | |
| BCF (%) | 39.0 ± 1.30 | 40.2 ± 0.96 | |
| ALH (%) | 3.66 ± 0.31 | 3.57 ± 0.29 | |
| Viable acrosome intact (%) | 40.2 ± 3.89 | 39.3 ± 1.90 | |
| Membrane lipid disorder (median M540 fluor.) | 2966.4 ± 357.26 | 13,993.6 ± 4901.47 | |
| Level of ROS (median H2DCFDA fluor.) | 17,278.9 ± 3923.57 | 9073.0 ± 2103.47 | |
| DNA integrity (%) | 11.0 ± 0.71 | 8.51 ± 0.69 |