author(s)
Visakh Viswam, K Loganathasamy, VS Gomathy and D Reena

abstract
The experiment was undertaken to study sodium nitroprusside (SNP) induced free radical damage on sperm motility of frozen thawed buffalo semen and the ameliorative effects of osteopontin (OPN) supplementation on sperm motility. Buffalo frozen semen straws from 8 ejaculates of 6 bulls were procured from Central Frozen Semen Production and Training Institute, Hessarghatta, Banglore and stored at Semen Bank, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai. The semen straws were thawed and seminal plasma and semen extender were removed from spermatozoa by centrifugation. Spermatozoa were suspended in 1mL capacitation medium (control), with the addition of 100µg/mL of OPN (treatment I) or 100µM/mL of SNP (treatment II) or 100µg/mL of OPN + 100µM/mL of SNP (treatment III). Semen with capacitation medium alone without any supplementation served as control. The contents were incubated at 37ºC for 4 h and the post capacitation sperm motility was observed under bright field microscopy. The post capacitation sperm motility was significantly (P<0.05) higher in treatment I (71.80% ± 0.04) as compared to control (61.71% ± 0.03), treatment II (24.82% ± 0.07) and treatment III (46.64% ± 0.05). But, the post capacitation motility in treatment II and III were significantly (P<0.05) lower than control. The post capacitation motility in treatment III was significantly (P<0.05) higher than treatment II. The study indicated that addition of SNP alone in the capacitation medium has detrimental effects on the sperm motility and addition of OPN alone in the capacitation medium exerts beneficial effects on sperm motility. When both OPN and SNP were added in the capacitation medium, OPN partially ameliorated the toxic effects of SNP on the sperm motility of frozen thawed buffalo semen.