Abstract

Acrosin is an acrosomal protease synthesized as an inactive precursor, proacrosin, which is processed via autoproteolysis into active forms alpha- and beta-acrosin. In this paper, a comparative study on the immunoreactivity of acrosin during in vitro capacitation of frozen and fresh (control) canine sperm using Western blot analysis is reported. Semen samples were obtained by digital stimulation and ejaculates processed as fresh and frozen samples and then capacitated for 0, 30, 60 and 90 min. At each time period, samples were analyzed with monoclonal antibody C5F10 by Western blot. The antibody specifically recognized, in fresh and frozen/thawed spermatozoa, a 40-, 32- and 27-kDa bands corresponding to proacrosin, alpha- and beta-acrosin, respectively, during capacitation. Western immunoblots showed that the beta-acrosin reactivity in fresh sperm was directly proportional to the time of capacitation, whereas a decreased reactivity of active form of acrosin was observed with frozen-thawed sperm (p < 0.05). These results suggest that proacrosin is activated to beta-acrosin earlier in frozen/thawed dog spermatozoa than in fresh dog spermatozoa. © 2009 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.