Seminal Plasma Anti-Müllerian Hormone: A Potential AI-Boar Fertility Biomarker?

Abstract

The anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), a Sertoli cell-secreted glycoprotein that is present in seminal plasma (SP), is considered as a marker of spermatogenesis in humans. This study aimed to evaluate the presence of this hormone in boar SP, together with its putative relationship with sperm quality, function, and in vivo fertility parameters in liquid-stored semen samples. The concentration of SP-AMH was assessed in 126 ejaculates from artificial insemination (AI)-boars (n = 92) while using a commercial Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA) kit with monoclonal antibodies specific for Sus scrofa AMH (CEA228Po, Cloud-clone). Sperm quality (concentration, motility, viability, and acrosome damage) and functionality (membrane lipid disorder and intracellular H2O2 generation) were assessed in semen samples at 0 and 72 h of liquid-storage. In addition, fertility parameters from 3113 sows inseminated with the AI-boars were recorded in terms of farrowing rate, litter size, number of stillbirths per litter, and the duration of pregnancy over a 12-month period. The results revealed that the SP-AMH concentration varied widely among boar ejaculates, with no differences among breeds. Moreover, the SP-AMH concentration proved to be a good predictive biomarker for sperm concentration (p ˂ 0.05), but poor for other sperm quality, functionality, and in vivo fertility parameters of liquid-stored semen samples from AI-boars.

Metabolite Profiling of Pig Seminal Plasma Identifies Potential Biomarkers for Sperm Resilience to Liquid Preservation

“…However, when samples were divided considering breeds, no effect on SP-metabolites concentration was observed, except for fumarate, which exhibited higher levels in Pietrain than in Duroc boars. This agrees with most of the studies evaluating SP components in samples from different pig breeds, in which no breed effect was reported (Barranco et al, 2015b(Barranco et al, , 2016(Barranco et al, , 2020Llavanera et al, 2020). However, since the sample size for each breed was limited in the present study, further research should verify this assumption.…”

“…Many efforts have been focused on exploring pig SP composition with the aim to uncover SP biomarkers able to predict semen quality after ejaculate collection (López Rodríguez et al, 2012;Barranco et al, 2016Barranco et al, , 2017Barranco et al, , 2020Llavanera et al, 2020). In the last years, the advances in metabolomic analytical methods have allowed the identification of SP-metabolites as potential sperm quality biomarkers in mammalian species, such as humans (Bonechi et al, 2015;Engel et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019;Mumcu et al, 2020;Xu et al, 2020) and cattle (Moura et al, 2018).…”

“…This limitation undermines the ability to face new challenges in swine industry, as implementing new AI-procedures (such as a reduction in sperm numbers/AIdose) may lead to a decrease on in vivo fertility outcomes (Roca et al, 2016). In the last years, many efforts have been aimed at identifying biomarkers of sperm resilience to liquid preservation in seminal plasma (SP) (Barranco et al, 2015a(Barranco et al, ,b, 2016(Barranco et al, , 2019(Barranco et al, , 2020Recuero et al, 2019;Zakošek Pipan et al, 2014). The heterogeneous and complex composition of SP, together with the fact that this fluid is able to interact with sperm, make it a valuable source of potential biomarkers (Rodríguez-Martínez et al, 2011).…”

Global Methylation and Protamine Deficiency in Ram Spermatozoa Correlate with Sperm Production and Quality but Are Not Influenced by Melatonin or Season

“…Given that our previous study in the ram established a positive correlation between the number of spermatozoa per ejaculate and AMH concentration in seminal plasma [15], it is interesting to note that seminal plasma levels of AMH comparably relate to sperm protamine deficiency. In other species, AMH is an emerging indicator of testicular function, where seminal plasma AMH levels positively correlate with elevated spermatogenesis [54,55], reduced oxidative stress [54,56] and increased semen production [57] and quality [58][59][60][61][62]. In the present study, lower levels of seminal plasma AMH were associated with increased protamine deficiency, supporting the theory that AMH levels in seminal plasma may be somewhat predictive of testicular function.…”

Seminal Plasma: Relevant for Fertility?

“…Markers for sperm dysfunction [ 218 ] and (in)fertility have been detected in spermatozoa [ 27 , 190 , 219 , 220 ] and in the SP [ 221 , 222 ] of many species, including humans [ 218 , 222 , 223 , 224 , 225 ] and livestock [ 70 , 226 ]. They vary from gene presence [ 227 ], markers of Sertoli cell function [ 228 ], proteins [ 36 , 229 , 230 , 231 ], anti-oxidative enzymes [ 223 , 232 , 233 ] and metabolites [ 234 , 235 , 236 ] to exosome-associated molecules [ 237 , 238 ] and microRNAs [ 181 , 239 , 240 , 241 ].…”