In vitro capacitation of boar ejaculated spermatozoa: effect of conditioned media prepared from preincubated sperm suspension.

The fertilizing ability of boar ejaculated spermatozoa was examined in vitro after preincubation at a concentration of 2.5 x 10(8)/ml for 4 hr in several conditioned media (CM). For preparation of CM, boar spermatozoa were incubated in a modified Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate solution (TYH) at concentrations of 20 to 40 x 10(8)/ml for several hours up to 4 hr; then their supernatant fluids were collected by centrifugation. When boar ejaculated spermatozoa were preincubated in TYH alone, 14.1% of oocytes were penetrated by them as we reported previously. On the other hand, preincubating them with CM, their fertilizing ability was elevated according as the incubation time of CM preparation was lengthened. The fertilization rate reached 75.0%, using 4 hr-incubated CM for the preincubation medium. The effect of CM was not deteriorated by heat treatments (56 degrees C, 30 min, or 100 degrees C, 5 min). The components of CM were separated at a molecular weight of 25,000 by ultrafiltration, and high fertilization rate (69.8%) was obtained when low molecular weight fraction was used for the preincubation medium. Sperm extracts prepared from directly frozen-thawed sperm suspension and 0.1-10 mM of taurine or hypotaurine had no effect on the fertilizing ability of boar spermatozoa. These results suggest that substances stimulating boar sperm capacitation were accumulated from viable spermatozoa into the medium during incubation and that the effective substances were heat-stable and of low molecular weight and were not taurine and hypotaurine.