Department of Zoology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141 004, India.
1Departrnent of Animal Reproduction, Gynecology & Obstetrics, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana - 141 004, India.
The effect of seminal plasma on protein changes in sperm membrane during in vitro induction of capacitation, revealed that seminal plasma caused a gradual increase in protein leakage when added to the incubation medium (IM) in gradually higher dilutions ranging from 1:10 to 1:200. The protein leakage was significantly higher with 1:200 (2.22±0.13 to 3.29±0.42 mg/108s) than with 1:10 diluted seminal plasma (0.17±0.11 to 0.62 ± 0.77 mg/108s) and control (2.0±0.27 to 2.83±0.34 mg/108s) in six bulls. The protein profile of the IM revealed the leakage of proteins with molecular weight of 205, 97.4, 66, 43, 29, 14.3, 6.5 and 3 kDa in all the six bulls after addition of 1:10 as well as 1:200 diluted seminal plasma and these were similar to those found in control. This revealed that addition of seminal plasma did not inhibit the leakage of specific proteins which further supported its stimulatory effect on capacitation in terms of protein leakage which was perhaps essential for increasing membrane fluidity leading to acrosome reaction.
Seminal plasma, Proteins, Heparin, Bull sperm
