A review on the functional roles of trehalose during cryopreservation of small ruminant semen

Baoyu Jia; Larbi Allai; Chunyan Li; Jiachong Liang; Chunrong Lv; Guoquan Wu; Guobo Quan

doi:10.3389/fvets.2024.1467242

A review on the functional roles of trehalose during cryopreservation of small ruminant semen

Front Vet Sci. 2024 Nov 19:11:1467242. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1467242. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Baoyu Jia^#¹, Larbi Allai^#^{2

3

4}, Chunyan Li^{2

5

6}, Jiachong Liang^{2

5

6}, Chunrong Lv^{2

5

6}, Guoquan Wu^{2

5

6}, Guobo Quan^{2

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ College of Veterinary Medicine, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, China.
² Yunnan Animal Science and Veterinary Institute, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
³ Laboratory of Sustainable Agriculture Management, Higher School of Technology Sidi Bennour, Chouaib Doukkali University, El Jadida, Morocco.
⁴ Higher School of Education and Training, Mohammed I University, Oujda, Morocco.
⁵ Yunnan Provincial Engineering Research Center of Animal Genetic Resource Conservation and Germplasm Enhancement, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
⁶ Yunnan Provincial Genebank of Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources, Kunming, Yunnan, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Sperm cryopreservation is an approach to preserve sperm cells in liquid nitrogen or other cryogenic media for future use in assisted reproductive technologies, such as in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination. Sperm cryopreservation has been extensively used in the dairy industry and has attained excellent results after artificial insemination. However, for small ruminants the application of sperm cryopreservation is limited, due to the poor quality of frozen semen and special characteristics of the reproductive female tract. In order to improve post-thaw semen quality various cryoprotectants are used. Currently, many types of cryoprotectants, such as permeable organic solvents, sugars, antioxidants, and natural or synthetic ice blockers, have been tested on small ruminants' sperm cryopreservation. Among them, trehalose; has shown potential acting as an excellent cryoprotectant for semen freezing. While, the exact roles and action mechanisms of trehalose during cryopreservation remain unclear. In this review, we systematically summarized the present usage status, potential action mechanisms, and future application prospects of trehalose in small-ruminant sperm cryopreservation.

Keywords: cryoinjury; cryopreservation; semen; small ruminant; trehalose.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This paper is funded by Yunnan Province Basic Research Project (Grant No. 202301AS070005), the Earmarked Fund for China Agriculture Research System (Grant No. CARS-39-08), and Yunnan International Joint Laboratory of Conservation and Innovative Utilization of Sheep Germplasm Resources (Grant No. 202403AP140017).