Mitochondria in Mammalian Sperm Physiology and Pathology: A Review

Abstract

While, for a long time, the role of mitochondria in sperm physiology and pathology has been largely ignored, recent research points out the mitochondria as a major organelle with key roles in sperm function both under physiological and biotechnological conditions. This paper briefly reviews these novel findings regarding the role of mitochondria in sperm, paying special attention to the most practical, readily applicable, aspects of the topic such as their role as a major source of the sublethal damage that sperm experiments after cryopreservation.

Toxicity of glycerol for the stallion spermatozoa: Effects on membrane integrity and cytoskeleton, lipid peroxidation and mitochondrial membrane potential

“…Also this may explain the lack of lipid peroxidation in our experiment, but another possible explanation relies in the ability of glycerol to scavenge the hydroxyl radical [40]. The sperm mitochondria have been characterized as the main source of reactive oxygen species in the spermatozoa [41,42], and also the sperm structures more sensitive to the damage induced by cryopreservation [25,26,[43][44][45], but glycerol toxicity does not seem to be a major factor involved in mitochondrial damage. Finally we studied the activity of caspases 3, 7 and 8, however none of the glycerol concentrations studied resulted in a significant increase in any of the caspases studied.…”

Storage temperature of boar semen and its relationship to changes in sperm plasma membrane integrity, mitochondrial membrane potential, and oxidoreductive capability

“…The membrane destabilization associated with cooling may stimulate capacitation-like calcium-dependent processes (Bailey and Buhr, 1995;Huo et al, 2002;Bailey et al, 2008;Costello et al, 2009;Waberski et al, 2011;Schmid et al, 2013;Gadella and Luna, 2014). Moreover, the disruption of cellular calcium homeostasis may be associated with the excessive formation of ROS and lipid peroxidation in sperm cells (Awda et al, 2009;Peña et al, 2009) affecting ion transport and enzyme activity (Großfeld et al, 2008;Kim et al, 2008;Awda et al, 2009;Kumaresan et al, 2009). Brouwers et al (2005) indicate that the midpiece and tail of boar spermatozoa are more susceptible than the sperm head to lipid peroxidation, and that living sperm cells are intensely peroxidized after freeze-thawing.…”

Flow cytometry for the assessment of animal sperm integrity and functionality: state of the art

“…71 Mitochondrial status Mitochondria, located in the sperm mid-piece generate a major part of the ATP required for sperm metabolism, membrane function and motility, alongside with anaerobic glycolysis in the cytoplasm. 19,[72][73][74] Besides, mitochondria are the coordinators of apoptosis mechanisms in a number of cell systems, 75,76 and they are involved in sperm maturation 72 and protection against damage induced by cryopreservation. 74 Recently mitochondrial proteins were found to be involved in the capacitation-dependent tyrosine phosphorylation in spermatozoa.…”