Effect of relaxin and antirelaxin serum on porcine sperm motility

  • H. H. Juang*
  • , A. I. Musah
  • , C. Schwabe
  • , L. L. Anderson
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Sperm motility was estimated by a transmembrane migration ratio (TMMR) method, which is based on the proportion of sperm that migrate across a membrane containing micropores with a diameter slightly greater than the width of the sperm nucleus. Relaxin (1000, 333 and 167 ng/ml) attenuated (P < 0.01) loss of sperm motility during 120 min (50 vs 40%). The addition of 1000 ng/ml relaxin to semen improved sperm motility (P < 0.05) stored at 12°C for 5 days with compared controls (43 vs 32%). Antirelaxin serum (R6) and normal rabbit serum (NRS; 1:9000) were added to semen and the sperm motility was determined at 0, 10, 40, 80 and 120 min. Antirelaxin serum abruptly inhibited sperm motility (P < 0.01) within 10 min compared with NRS-treated control semen (25 vs 58%). Caffeine and relaxin stimulated motility (P < 0.01) of frozen-thawed porcine semen; however, relaxin maintained greater sperm motility (P < 0.01) than caffeine after 80 min (30 vs 16%). These results indicate that purified porcine relaxin can maintain or increase sperm motility; in contrast, porcine antirelaxin abruptly inhibits sperm motility.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)21-29
Number of pages9
JournalAnimal Reproduction Science
Volume20
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 07 1989
Externally publishedYes

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