DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING AND BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SPERM AND SEMINAL PLASMA PROTEINS IN DOGS WITH BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERPLASIA
Maria Ivanov, Desislava Gradinarska, Miroslav Genov, Diana Zasheva, Boyko Georgiev
"Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biology and Immunology of Reproduction “Acad. Kiril Bratanov”, Department of Reproductive Biotechnologies and Cryobiology of Gametes, Blvd ""Tsarigradsko shose"" 73A, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria"
kichevamar@abv.bg
The disease benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) occurs in men, dogs and less frequently in other species. BPH is a state of endocrine dysregulation related to age, which in dogs is most common in uncastrated males after 6 years of age. Information on the effect of BPH on semen quality and seminal plasma proteins (SPPs) is of great interest for the practice of artificial insemination and semen cryopreservation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the size and struc- ture of the prostate by echographic and radiographic imaging; to assess semen quality by CASA and to compare by HPLC and SDS-PAGE analysis the SPPs profiles between healthy dogs (BPH–) and dogs with BPH (BPH+). The increase of the ejaculate volume (4.96 ± 2.28 for BPH+ and 3.59 ± 2.0 for BPH–, p = 0.03) and alkalization of sperm (pH 7.18 ± 0.13 for BPH+ and pH 6.74 ± 0.11 for BPH–) in BPH dogs were demonstrated. There were statistically significant differences in motility, progression and speed parameters of spermatozoa between the two groups. It has been shown that sperm head area in dogs with BPH is credibly smaller, 20.89 ± 2.34 μm 2 , whereas in comparison to healthy dogs this value is 29.11 ± 6.21 μm 2 . The results of HPLC assay showed that BPH is associated with changes in the amount and content of certain proteins from the seminal plasma (SP). Protein characterization gives information that proteins of the SP can serve as relevant markers for the evaluation of the biological potential of the sperm. As a conclusion of the research, it was found that BPH in dogs leads to statistically significant changes in motility and speed parameters of spermatozoa. We believe that these changes are the result of a modified protein profile of the SP, with a proven increased protein presence of high molecular weight (MW) around and above 200 kDa, and the presence of an increased amount of low MW proteins under 12.4 kDa.
Keywords: dog; prostate; seminal plasma protein; spermatozoaovi
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