Restoring Sperm Quality Post-Cryopreservation Using Mitochondrial-Targeted Compounds
Files
(Published version)
Date
2022
Authors
Gonzalez, M.
Prashar, T.
Connaughton, H.
Barry, M.
Robker, R.
Rose, R.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
Antioxidants, 2022; 11(9):1808-1-1808-14
Statement of Responsibility
Macarena Gonzalez, Tanisha Prashar, Haley Connaughton, Michael Barry, Rebecca Robker and Ryan Rose
Conference Name
Abstract
While critical for male fertility preservation, cryopreservation damage reduces sperm quality and fertilization potential. This study investigated whether the addition of mitochondrialtargeted, antioxidant compounds, also known as Mitochondrial activators, to the cryopreservation medium could protect sperm quality during cryopreservation. For this, semen samples from men undergoing IVF/ICSI treatment, which were donated for research, underwent cryopreservation in the absence or presence of BGP-15, MitoQ and L-carnitine. Fresh semen and thawed sperm samples from the same participant were analyzed for indicators of sperm quality: sperm viability, kinetics, mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, Mitochondrial Membrane Potential (MMP) and DNA damage. Cryopreservation significantly reduced sperm viability and motility and predicted mucous penetration. BGP-15, MitoQ and L-carnitine improved sperm motility, whilst the addition of L-Carnitine prevented the loss of sperm viability during cryopreservation. Both BGP-15 and L-carnitine reduced sperm DNA oxidative damage, but only BGP-15 significantly reduced DNA fragmentation. More importantly, BGP-15 increased sperm predictive mucous penetration and MMP and reduced DNA oxidation. Our results show that the addition of BGP-15 or L-carnitine to the cryopreservation medium improves sperm quality post-thawing, highlighting the potential of mitochondrial antioxidants to improve long-term fertility preservation in males.
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
Published: 14 September 2022
Access Status
Rights
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).