Isoespintanol improves the post-thaw quality of stallion semen Isoespintanol improves stallion semen

Abstract

The study was conducted toassess the effect of thymol and isoespintanol when usedin stallion semen freezing.The semen of seven Colombian creole horses was collected using the artificial vagina method. Each sample was separated into three aliquots that were subjected to a freezing protocol using the treatments: Thymol (50 μM), Isoespintanol (40 μM) and Control. After thawing, sperm motility (MOT) was assessed via phase contrast microscopy; sperm vitality (SV) and normal morphology (NM) via supravital staining using eosin-nigrosin; cell membrane integrity was in turn evaluated (MI) with the hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOS), and the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) by means of a fluorometry in a microplate reader. The statistical assessment was performed by fitting mixed models and conducting a Pearson correlation analysis. The comparisons between the measurements were compared using Tukey’s test. A statistically significant difference (p<0.05) was found between isoespintanol and the control group for MOV (47% vs. 36.3%), SV (57.1 vs. 51.8) and MI (44.4% vs. 36.5%). No effects were found for thymol and isoespintanol on the MMP of cryopreserved stallion spermatozoa. We conclude that isoespintanol improves the post-thaw quality of stallion semen.