Effect Of Pentoxifylline On Physiological Activity Of Bovine Spermatozoa

Pentoxifylline, like other methylxantine derivatives, acts as an inhibitor of cyclic3’,5’-adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) phosphodiesterase activity? thus increasing the intracellular cAMP concentration. This substance has been used to increase the quality (e.g. motility and/or membrane integrity) of fresh and/or frozen-thawed spermatozoa in human and other species. In spite of these promising benefits, the effect of pentoxifylline on bovine spermatozoa has been sparsely evaluated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of pentoxifylline on the physiological activity of bovine spermatozoa.The current study was devided into two experiments. Experiment1determined the effect of pentoxifylline on the motility, membranne integrity, mitochondria activity, acrosome integrity and fertilization rates of bovine fresh spermatozoa. In experiment1, the motility of spermatozoa that treated with pentoxifylline for3or4hours was significantly decreased (P<0.05) as compared to control group (no pentoxifylline treated). In addition, the membrane integrity of spermatozoa was significantly enhanced (P<0.05) at the late phase (2-4h) of pentoxifylline incubation. Furthermore, the mitochondria activity of spermatozoa from PTX group (pentoxifylline treated) was significantly increased (P<0.05) compared to those from control group. No significances were observed for both acrosome integrity and cleavage rates when spermatozoa were treated using pentoxifylline. These results indicate that inclusion of pentoxifylline in bovine fresh spermatozoa appears to have association with an increased mitochondria activity and a protective effect on membranne integrity, but it likely has a negative impact on the motility.Secondly, experiment2determined the effect of pentoxifylline on the motility, membranne integrity, mitochondria activity, acrosome integrity and fertilization rates of bovine frozen-thawed spermatozoa. Within experimrnt2, the motility of spermatozoa was significantly increased (P<0.05) at the late phase (2-4h) of pentoxifylline incubation as compared to control group. Moreover, the membrane integrity of spermatozoa that treated with pentoxifylline was significantly strengthened (P<0.05). Further, the mitochondria activity of spermatozoa from PTX group was also significantly increased (P<0.05). However, no significances were found for acrosome integrity when spermatozoa were treated with pentoxifylline. The percentage of cleavage rates of PTX-BO group (Brackett and Oliphant’s medium supplemented with pentoxifylline) was significantly increased as compared to control group and PTX group. Thus, we conclude that inclusion of pentoxifylline in bovine frozen-thawed spermatozoa may promote the survival time, membranne integrity and mitochondria activity of spermatozoa, as well as improve the in vitro fertilization ability of spermatozoa.