Reviving vacuum-dried encapsulated ram spermatozoa via ICSI after 2 years of storage.
Vacuum-drying encapsulation (VDE) resulted in a higher embryonic development rate of 12.8% compared to 8.7% for freeze-drying (FD), p<0.001.
Where it sits
this study against the rest of the ovagen (edl) corpusSummary and findings
This study evaluated the effects of vacuum-drying encapsulation (VDE) versus freeze-drying (FD) on ram spermatozoa stored for two years. The primary outcome measured was embryonic development rates, which were found to be higher in VDE samples compared to FD samples. No therapeutic claims are made.
Abstract
<h4>Introduction</h4>Freeze-drying techniques give alternative preservation mammalian spermatozoa without liquid nitrogen. However, most of the work has been conducted in the laboratory mouse, while little information has been gathered on large animals that could also benefit from this kind of storage.<h4>Methods</h4>This work adapted a technique known as vacuum-drying encapsulation (VDE), originally developed for nucleic acid conservation in anhydrous state, to ram spermatozoa, and compared it to canonical lyophilization (FD), testing long-term storage at room temperature (RT) and 4°C.<h4>Results and discussion</h4>The results demonstrated better structural stability, namely lipid composition and DNA integrity, in VDE spermatozoa than FD ones, with outcomes at RT storage comparable to 4°C. Likewise, in VDE the embryonic development was higher than in FD samples (12.8% vs. 8.7%, <i>p</i> < 0.001, respectively). Our findings indicated that in large mammals, it is important to consider dehydration-related changes in sperm polyunsaturated fatty acids coupled with DNA alterations, given their crucial role in embryonic development.