High incidence of ‘Dag-like’ sperm defect in the domestic cat

Villaverde, Ana Izabel Silva Balbin; Fioratti, Eduardo Gorzoni; Ramos, R. S.; Neves, R. F.; Cardoso, Guilherme Schiess; Landim-Alvarenga, F. C.; Lopes, Maria Denise

doi:10.1177/1098612x12469368

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Prochowska et al (31) suggested that the Dag defect is not hereditary but caused by changes in osmotic pressure. Observations by Villaverde et al (40) conducted using an electron microscope on the sperm of domestic cats indicate the presence of sperm defects similar to those described in other species as the Dag defect. The authors describe the sperm defects in detail as heavily coiled sperm tails containing several axonemal units enclosed in a common cell membrane, aberrations in the axonemal main structure, and swollen and unevenly distributed mitochondria in the midpiece.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

“…The authors describe the sperm defects in detail as heavily coiled sperm tails containing several axonemal units enclosed in a common cell membrane, aberrations in the axonemal main structure, and swollen and unevenly distributed mitochondria in the midpiece. The authors also noted abnormalities of the mitochondrial sheath in spermatozoa from the testicles and epididymis of cats following castration (40). The sperm tail may also become bent or coiled due to abnormal epididymal secretion (42).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Assessment of the morphometry of heads of normal sperm and sperm with the Dag defect in the semen of Duroc boars

Banaszewska

Andraszek

2021

Journal of Veterinary Research

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Introduction The Dag defect is one of the primary morphological defects in sperm correlating with reduced fertility. This defect is found in the spermatozoa of many livestock species. The aim of the study was to assess the morphometry of the heads of normal sperm and sperm with the Dag defect in the semen of Duroc breeding boars. Material and Methods Sperm morphology was examined in ten ejaculates each from 12 Duroc boars. In total, 3,600 morphologically normal sperm and 838 sperm with the Dag defect were evaluated. The area, perimeter, length and width of the sperm head were measured and these basic morphometric parameters were used to calculate four additional shape indices characterising the sperm head, i.e. ellipticity, elongation, roughness and regularity. Results Sperm with this defect had markedly smaller heads, 0.32 μm shorter and 0.19 μm narrower than the heads of sperm with normal morphological structure. The heads of sperm with the Dag defect also had a 1.1μm smaller perimeter and a 2.5 μm2 smaller surface area than the heads of morphologically normal sperm. Conclusions The Dag defect is found in boar sperm irrespective of the age of the individual. It affects the morphology of the sperm head.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Assessment of the morphometry of heads of normal sperm and sperm with the Dag defect in the semen of Duroc boars

Banaszewska

Andraszek

2021

Journal of Veterinary Research

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“…The observations made in the present study support the hypothesis that the origin of most coiled‐tail sperm cell defects observed is in the testis or in the upper section of epididymis where the oxidation of sperm membrane occurs (Yeung et al., ). The coiled‐tail sperm cells of testicular origin have been characterized by transactional electron microscopy (TEM) in human (Yeung et al., ) and domestic cats (Villaverde et al., ) and is characterized by several axonemal units enclosed in the same common cell membrane. Further electron microscopy evaluation of the tightly coiled‐tail sperm defect in clouded leopard is warranted.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The cause of HIC was associated with genetic background, whereas other coiled tails were related to epididymal factors (Yeung et al., ). The high proportion of coiled or bent sperm tails in the ejaculated semen has been reported in many domestic species, that are bulls (Blom, ), stallions (Hellander et al, ), goats (Molnár et al., ), dogs (Rota et al, ) and cats (Villaverde et al., ), and has been termed as a “Dag defect” or “Dag‐like defect” of testicular origin (Koefoed‐Johnsen et al, ; Rota et al., ; Villaverde et al., ). “Dag defect” can lead to subfertility (Blom, ; Wenkoff, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigation of sperm tail abnormalities using demembranation approach in the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa)

Tipkantha

Thuwanut

Siriaroonrat

et al. 2016

Reprod Domestic Animals

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ContentsClouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa) produced high proportion of abnormal spermatozoa (mainly tail defects) that can limit sperm movement and conception. The study aimed to better identify the origin of those defects using a demembranation approach.Ejaculates (1-2 ejaculations/male; n = 9) were allocated to simple washing (control; resulting in 11.7% ± 1.9% coiled tails) and processed through colloid centrifugation to reduce the number of sperm with tail defects (treatment, resulting in 5.9% ± 0.9% coiled tails). Aliquots of semen were incubated in hypo-osmotic solution (HOS, 60 mOsm fructose solution) containing 5 mM dithiothreitol (DTT) (a reducing agent) to prevent oxidation of sperm membrane. Thereafter, 20% Triton X-100 (TX) (a detergent) was added to the HOS/DTT-treated samples. After HOS/DTT incubation, the control samples and sperm-selected samples presented 73.4% ± 3.1% and 73.9% ± 2.5% swollen sperm (bent and coiled) indicating membrane intact, respectively. Most of the coiled tail in the raw ejaculates could not be opened by TX indicating that the cause of coiled sperm tails may be from testicular origin. The proportion of sperm with tightly coiled tail tended to be lower in the sperm-selected group than control group (18.8% ± 3.8% and 26.5% ± 3.4%; p = .1), whereas the sperm opened up by TX tended to be higher in the sperm-selected group (53.6% ± 10.4% and 21.1% ± 7.9%; p = .06). The results indicated TX was able to uncoil half of the tightly coiled sperm in the semen undergone preparation. In conclusion, the coiled sperm in the clouded leopard semen were likely not a defect of sperm volume regulation during post-ejaculate (osmotic swelling) but pre-ejaculate origin. Semen preparation demonstrated its ability to lessen the primary sperm defects and selected spermatozoa that were prone to be mitigated after demembranation.

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“…In a previous retrospective study, 19 of 48 domestic cats (39.6%) had over 60% of sperm defects and were therefore considered as teratospermic (Axnér & Linde Forsberg, ). The most common morphological defects found were bent tail (32.3% ± 1.7%), dag‐like defect (tightly coiled tail) (26.8% ± 4.5%), macrocephalic head (12.5% ± 2.8%), abnormal acrosome (11.5% ± 3.4%) and distal cytoplasmic droplet (4.8% ± 1.2%) (Villaverde et al., ). Other studies demonstrated that teratospermic ejaculates were sensitive to cryodamages and osmotic stress, exhibiting reduced motility and low percentages of intact acrosomes (Pukazhenthi et al, ; Pukazhenthi et al., , ).…”

Section: Cryopreservation Of Ejaculated Spermmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retained fertilizing capability in cryopreserved feline spermatozoa

Chatdarong

2016

Reprod Domestic Animals

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Sperm cryopreservation offers a long-term preservation of male genetic materials for future assisted reproductive technologies. However, dramatic changes in temperature during freezing and thawing injure sperm cells. While motility is essential for AI and membrane integrity is crucial for in vitro fertilization (IVF), sperm DNA integrity is a common index of fertilizing capability required for AI, IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). In endangered felids died unexpectedly, attempts have been made to recover as many DNA intact spermatozoa as possible from epididymis and testis to increase the opportunity to produce offspring in future. Although sperm from caudal epididymis has shown retained fertilizing capability after freezing and thawing (27.3% conception rate after unilateral intrauterine insemination), sperm recovery from the corpus epididymis has been suggested as an alternative to increase the amount of preserved genetic materials. To improve epididymal sperm quality, pre-treatment with single-layer centrifugation resulted in selection of sperm cells with intact DNA while post-thaw treatment with extracellular ATP incubation promoted the blastocyst rate. Cold storage of domestic cat testis for 7 days at 4°C demonstrated <1% of sperm cells with fragmented DNA. Moreover, isolated testicular sperm cells, stored for 7 days at 4°C, produced after ICSI poorer percentages of cleavage, morula and blastocyst than the fresh control. In wild felids, a death-tonecropsy time of 2 hr after a jungle cat (Felis chaus) aged 10 years died during anaesthesia plus another necropsy-to-sperm recovery time of 25 hr has been reported to yield the post-thawed testicular sperm with 22.2% intact DNA. In summary, the chromatin structure of feline ejaculated and epididymal sperm seems to be tolerated to cold storage and cryopreservation; thus, fertilizing capability is well protected. In contrast, the cat testicular sperm DNA is generally damaged through the cryopreservation.

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High incidence of ‘Dag-like’ sperm defect in the domestic cat

Cited by 7 publications

References 30 publications

Assessment of the morphometry of heads of normal sperm and sperm with the Dag defect in the semen of Duroc boars

Assessment of the morphometry of heads of normal sperm and sperm with the Dag defect in the semen of Duroc boars

Mitigation of sperm tail abnormalities using demembranation approach in the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa)

Retained fertilizing capability in cryopreserved feline spermatozoa

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