Alessandro Di Cerbo
University G d`Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, Italy
Title: In equine breeding program, subfertility of mares after insemination with frozen-thawed semen remains a major problem. Semen cryopreservation is the best method to preserve semen with additional benefit to increase remotely genetic distribution. However, sperm are exposed to extreme changes in temperature and extracellular fluid compositions during cryopreservation which potentially cause the osmotic stress and membrane instability leading to the damage of sperm. Trehalose, a disaccharide sugar, protects plasma membrane during dehydration and has been shown as an outstanding cryoprotective capability. Therefore, we aimed at investigating the osmotic tolerance limits of equine sperm, the protective effects of trehalose on osmotic tolerance and the quality of equine sperm before and after freezing and thawing. Equine ejaculated semen (n=14) was collected from six stallions. Results showed the average of motility and plasma membrane integrity of equine sperm were significantly lower in hypo- (150 mOsm/kg) and hyperosmolarity (450, 600 and 750 mOsm/kg) when compared to iso-osmolarity (300 mOsm/kg). Moreover, these parameters were worsen when osmolarities were increased. This data indicated that equine sperm had limited osmotic tolerance. Pre-incubation of sperm with 100 mM trehalose improved sperm motility, viability and membrane integrity when exposed to aniosmotic conditoins (450, 600 and 750 mOsm/kg) (P<0.05). These results, therefore, demonstrated that trehalose enhanced osmotic tolerance of equine sperm. In addition, supplementation of trehalose into semen extender also increased sperm qualities (sperm motility, viability and membrane integrity) after cooling and cryopreservation when compared with control (no trehalose) (P<0.05). It
Biography
Biography: Alessandro Di Cerbo
Abstract
In the last decades adverse food reactions were considerably increased in dogs and cats. We reported the onset of food intolerances symptoms, including otitis, diarrhea, generalized anxiety, and dermatitis, in a cohort of 8 dogs consuming commercial diets. The aim of this preliminary study is to possibly provide new insights in the idiopathic food intolerances with a particular focus on the
role of or their metabolites as possible triggering factors. All dogs were supplemented with an organic chicken-based diet for 15 days. Blood biochemical parameters, kibbles composition, oxytetracycline (OTC) serum concentration were performed before and after 15 days of organic chicken-based diet supplementation. We hypothesize that a chronic intake of contaminated food, enhanced also by the presence of nanoparticles, might foster pharmacologic or idiopathic food intolerances. Biochemical analyses indicated a significant increase in the alkaline phosphatase, from 41 to 52.5 U/L, after 15 days (**p<0.01), while a significant decrease in Gammaglutamyl transferase and urea, from 9.37 to 6.25 U/L and from 32.13±8.72 to 22.13±7.8 mg/dL, respectively, was observed (*p<0.05).A significant decrease in mean OTC serum concentration was also observed from 0.22 to 0.02 μg/mL (**p<0.01). We provided clinical evidence of the presence of symptoms, which may occur in dogs fed on commercially available pet food diets. Nevertheless we cannot rule out the possible combined pro-inflammatory activity exerted by nanoparticles, whose presence is almost unavoidable during the overall production process.