Strategies for Highly Efficient Rabbit Sperm Cryopreservation
Kazutoshi Nishijima,
Shuji Kitajima,
Fumikazu Matsuhisa,
Manabu Niimi,
Chen-chi Wang,
Jianglin Fan
Affiliations
Kazutoshi Nishijima
Center for Animal Resources and Collaborative Study, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, 38 Nishigonaka, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan
Shuji Kitajima
Analytical Research Center for Experimental Sciences, Division of Biological Resources and Development, Saga University, 5-1-1 Nabeshima, Saga 849-8501, Japan
Fumikazu Matsuhisa
Analytical Research Center for Experimental Sciences, Division of Biological Resources and Development, Saga University, 5-1-1 Nabeshima, Saga 849-8501, Japan
Manabu Niimi
Department of Molecular Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medical Sciences, University of Yamanashi, 1110 Shimokato, Chuo 409-3898, Japan
Chen-chi Wang
Animal Resources Section, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan
Jianglin Fan
Department of Molecular Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medical Sciences, University of Yamanashi, 1110 Shimokato, Chuo 409-3898, Japan
The rabbit is a valuable animal for both the economy and biomedical sciences. Sperm cryopreservation is one of the most efficient ways to preserve rabbit strains because it is easy to collect ejaculate repeatedly from a single male and inseminate artificially into multiple females. During the cooling, freezing and thawing process of sperms, the plasma membrane, cytoplasm and genome structures could be damaged by osmotic stress, cold shock, intracellular ice crystal formation, and excessive production of reactive oxygen species. In this review, we will discuss the progress made during the past years regarding efforts to minimize the cell damage in rabbit sperms, including freezing extender, cryoprotectants, supplements, and procedures.
