The aims of this study were to assess the effects of the sex-sorting process on post-thaw sperm quality as well as on induced oxidative stress damage (H2O2 0 mM = H000; H2O2 50 mM = H050; H2O2 100 mM = H100) and the protective action of reduced glutathione (GSH) and Trolox, when comparing sorted (BSS) and non-sorted (NS) red deer spermatozoa incubated at 37 degrees C. Sperm samples from three stags were collected by electroejaculation and frozen. Immediately after thawing, sperm motility was higher (p 0.05) for NS (59% +/- 3.3) than BSS (36.9% +/- 5.8) sperm. Furthermore, the percentage of apoptotic sperm was higher (p 0.05) for BSS (21.6% +/- 5.0) than NS sperm (14.6% +/- 1.2). The presence of H2O2 increased DNA damage in NS (H000 = 4.1% +/- 0.9; H050 = 9.3% +/- 0.7; and H100 = 10.9% +/- 2.3), but not in BSS sperm. However, in the presence of oxidant, GSH addition improved (p 0.05) sperm motility in both groups of sperm samples as compared to their controls (NS: 44.5 +/- 4.8 vs 21.1 +/- 3.9 and BSS: 33.3 +/- 8.1 vs 8.9 +/- 1.8). These results demonstrate that the sperm-sorting process induces sublethal effects, albeit selecting a sperm population with a chromatin more resistant to oxidative stress than that in non-sorted sperm. Moreover, addition of GSH at 1 mM may be a good choice for maintaining the quality of stressed sperm samples, unlike Trolox, which inhibited sperm motility.
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