Lipid peroxidation products and defenses against free radical damage were determined in serum of 55 patients with senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) and compared with values in 24 age-matched healthy control subjects. The following parameters were evaluated: lipid-conjugated dienes and trienes, malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity in erythrocytes, vitamins E, C and A, zinc, selenium and copper, ceruloplasmin, transferrin and albumin. The results showed a statistically significant decrease in the levels of GSH-Px, vitamins E, C and A, zinc, transferrin and albumin in the SDAT group. On the other hand, most of the deficiencies concern the malnourished subgroup of the SDAT population (SOD, GSH-Px, vitamins E and C, selenium, zinc, transferrin and albumin). Such an alteration of free radical scavengers in the malnourished subgroup of the SDAT population could combine the radical and nutritional hypothesis advanced by some authors.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) dietary supplementation on semen quality, fatty acid composition, antioxidant capacity, and DNA fragmentation. In this randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study, 74 subjects were recruited and randomly assigned to either the placebo group (n=32) or to the DHA group (n=42) to consume three 500-mg capsules of oil per day over 10 weeks. The placebo group received 1,500 mg/day of sunflower oil and the DHA group 1,500 mg/day of DHA-enriched oil. Seminal parameters (semen volume, sperm concentration, motility, morphology, and vitality), total antioxidant capacity, deoxyribonucleic acid fragmentation, and lipid composition were evaluated prior to the treatment and after 10 weeks. Finally, 57 subjects were included in the study with 25 in the placebo group and 32 in the DHA group. No differences were found in traditional sperm parameters or lipid composition of the sperm membrane after treatment. However, an increase in DHA and Omega-3 fatty acid content in seminal plasma, an improvement in antioxidant status, and a reduction in the percentage of spermatozoa with deoxyribonucleic acid damage were observed in the DHA group after 10 weeks of treatment.

No abstract

The development of sperm cryopreservation procedures in brown bear is the basis for establishing a specific genetic resource bank aimed at the preservation of a Cantabric brown bear population, which is seriously threatened. Several issues complicate the development of these cryopreservation procedures: lack of previous specific studies, a high incidence of urospermia and spermagglutination observed in bear ejaculates. Moreover, the availability of individuals for research from these threatened populations is problematic. In the case of the Cantabric brown bear, we have used males from other populations, but of the same species, as surrogates, to carry out a direct extrapolation of the results. Urospermia-- Moreover, 70% of the ejaculates are urine contaminated and spermagglutination have a detrimental effect on post-thawing cell quality recovery in this species. Considering the high value of these samples (autochthonous population with few individuals), a pre-selection of the ejaculates is not a viable alternative. Preventive methods reducing the mentioned detrimental effects need to be developed. On the basis of previous data, we can suppose that bear spermatozoa resist freezing injuries well. Nevertheless, because of the scarcity of this information, it is necessary to conduct further research on bear semen freezing under field conditions. Epidydimal spermatozoa can be important for genetic resource banking of threatened populations and thus specific cryobiological protocols need to be assayed. To date, 168 brown bear ejaculates have been frozen by the ITRA-ULE group at the University of León (Spain) in the development of methodologies for the preservation of brown bear sperm.

The effect of storage procedure at 5°C on the quality of ram spermatozoa from the cauda epididymis was analyzed. Two strategies were tested at 0, 24, 48 and 72h post-mortem: (1) spermatozoa held in the epididymal fluid and stored either in the cauda epididymis (In-EPID) or in vitro (Ex-EPID), (2) epididymal spermatozoa extended in three media at 320, 370 and 420 mOsm/kg (D320, D370, D420). Analyzed parameters were: osmolality, pH, motility, acrosomal status and viability. In experiment 1, osmolality of the In-EPID samples, but not in Ex-EPID, increased with post-mortem time. Motility of In-EPID spermatozoa in samples, after 24h post-mortem, was higher compared to the Ex-EPID samples, although differences decreased at 48 and 72h. In experiment 2, total (TM) and progressive motility (PM) were not significantly affected by storage time for D320 and In-EPID samples. However, the motility of D370 and D420 samples significantly decreased with time. TM and PM of D320 were significantly higher than D370 and D420 at 72h. At 24h, sperm viability was higher for In-EPID (80.7±3.4%) than for the extended samples (44.8±2.9%, 37.7±3.9% and 48.6±6.0% for D320, D370 and D420, respectively), which also decreased faster with time. At 24h, the percentage of damaged acrosomes was low and similar for the four methods of storage, but damaged acrosomes increased with time for D320 and D370. Storing the spermatozoa in the epididymis is a good strategy for maintaining sperm quality in ram, at least for 48h. The D320 extender preserve motility of epididymal spermatozoa but does not protect the status of the acrosome.