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Animal Reproduction Science 60–61 2000 327–336 www.elsevier.comrlocateranireprosci
Can we use in vitro fertilization tests to predict semen fertility?
B. Larsson , H. Rodrıguez-Martınez
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Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Centre of Reproduction in Uppsala CRU , Swedish UniÕersity of Agricultural Sciences SLU , PO Box 7039,
SE 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
Abstract
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This presentation deals with assays based on in vitro fertilization IVF and related techniques Ž
. such as zona pellucida ZP binding assays and oocyte penetration tests. These types of assays
have been developed for several species of domestic animals. A description of the assays and how they have been performed in domestic animals, as well as data on the correlation between the
results of assays and actual in vivo fertility are presented. Used either as single tests or in combination with other tests, this type of assay can provide valuable information about a semen
donor, an insemination dose or a method of semen preservation. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Fertility; In vitro; In vivo; Domestic animals
1. Introduction
Before using a male for breeding purposes, is it important to know that he is fertile. In some cases, it is enough to know that he will be able to produce offspring, while in
others, knowledge of a more accurate level of his fertility is desired. The latter is the Ž
. case when a male is going to be used for artificial insemination AI , serving large
numbers of females. Therefore, over the years, several methods have been developed that aim at predicting male fertility. To test male fertility by mating or AI is expensive
and time-consuming, and only allows a limited number of males to be tested. Laboratory methods do not suffer from these drawbacks, and to test different aspects of semen
quality, several methods have been designed, some of which have been correlated to
Corresponding author. Tel.: q46-18-67-21-68; fax: q46-18-67-35-45. Ž
. E-mail address: birgitta.larssonog.slu.se B. Larsson .
0378-4320r00r - see front matter q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Ž
. PII: S 0 3 7 8 - 4 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 9 - 0
field fertility. Among the aspects of semen quality analysed is sperm morphology Ž
. Ž
. Barth, 1992 , sperm motility Kjaestad et al., 1993; Holt et al., 1997 , the biochemical
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Ž compounds in the semen Hirao, 1975 , presence of intact acrosomes Correa et al.,
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. 1997 , membrane integrity Perez et al., 1997 , concentration of swim-up separated
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spermatozoa Zhang et al., 1998 and the ability to spontaneously undergo capacitation Ž
. Januskauskas et al., 2000; Thundathil et al., 1999 and to undergo acrosome reaction
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Whitfield and Parkinson, 1995; Januskauskas et al., 1999 . However, few single sperm parameters show a significant correlation with in vivo fertility for semen samples within
acceptable ranges of normality. The more sperm parameters that can be tested, the more Ž
. accurate the test will be Amman and Hammersedt, 1993 . In this respect, interest has
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lately been focused on test methods related to the in vitro fertilization IVF technique.
2. IVF and related techniques
