l-arginine alters the proteome of frozen-thawed bovine sperm during in vitro capacitation

Abstract The aim of this work was to evaluate the proteomic changes that occurred in the frozen-thawed bovine spermatozoa after the addition of l -arginine (L-arg) during in vitro sperm capacitation. Aspects related to the sperm capacitation pattern like membrane integrity, mitochondrial activity, sperm motility and vigor, and the sperm proteome were determined. These were respectively assessed by chlortetracycline staining, H342/PI, JC-1, light microscopy, and the proteomic abundance by nUPLC-MS/MS analysis. Frozen-thawed sperm from three Nellore bulls were capacitated in vitro for 3 h in sp-TALP medium supplemented with 20 μg/mL heparin (Control) or with 20 μg/mL heparin plus 1 mM L-arg (L-arg group). Data were subjected to analysis of variance and means compared by SNK test at 5% probability. When compared to Control, the percentage of sperm motility was higher in the L-arg group (P  in vitro sperm capacitation of cattle.