Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Apr 23;11(5):1220.
doi: 10.3390/ani11051220.

Strategies for Highly Efficient Rabbit Sperm Cryopreservation

Kazutoshi Nishijima  1   2   3 , Shuji Kitajima  4 , Fumikazu Matsuhisa  4 , Manabu Niimi  5 , Chen-Chi Wang  6 , Jianglin Fan  5   7
Affiliations
Review

Strategies for Highly Efficient Rabbit Sperm Cryopreservation

Kazutoshi Nishijima et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

The rabbit is a valuable animal for both the economy and biomedical sciences. Sperm cryopreservation is one of the most efficient ways to preserve rabbit strains because it is easy to collect ejaculate repeatedly from a single male and inseminate artificially into multiple females. During the cooling, freezing and thawing process of sperms, the plasma membrane, cytoplasm and genome structures could be damaged by osmotic stress, cold shock, intracellular ice crystal formation, and excessive production of reactive oxygen species. In this review, we will discuss the progress made during the past years regarding efforts to minimize the cell damage in rabbit sperms, including freezing extender, cryoprotectants, supplements, and procedures.

Keywords: animal model; assisted reproductive technology; cryopreservation; rabbit; sperm quality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic illustration of the essential process of sperm cryopreservation. (A) Semen is collected with an artificial vagina; (B) semen is diluted with a freezing extender; (C) sperm solution is cooled at slow rate (with a programming incubator); (D) sperm solution packed in freezing straws are frozen in vapor of liquid nitrogen; (E) vitrification is another option for sperm freezing; (F) sperms are cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen, and (G) sperms are thawed by immersion in a warm bath.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic diagram of temperature changes during sperm cryopreservation process and associated problems.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO Database. [(accessed on 14 March 2021)];2019 Available online: http://www.faostat.fao.org.
    1. Fan J., Kitajima S., Watanabe T., Xu J., Zhang J., Liu E., Chen Y.E. Rabbit models for the study of human atherosclerosis: From pathophysiological mechanisms to translational medicine. Pharmacol. Ther. 2015;146:104–119. doi: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2014.09.009. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shiomi M. The History of the WHHL Rabbit, an Animal Model of Familial Hypercholesterolemia (I)—Contribution to the Elucidation of the Pathophysiology of Human Hypercholesterolemia and Coronary Heart Disease. J. Atheroscler. Thromb. 2020;27:105–118. doi: 10.5551/jat.RV17038-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Matsuhisa F., Kitajima S., Nishijima K., Akiyoshi T., Morimoto M., Fan J. Transgenic Rabbit Models: Now and the Future. Appl. Sci. 2020;10:7416. doi: 10.3390/app10217416. - DOI
    1. Mazur P., Leibo S.P., Seidel G.E., Jr. Cryopreservation of the germplasm of animals used in biological and medical research: Importance, impact, status, and future directions. Biol. Reprod. 2007;78:2–12. doi: 10.1095/biolreprod.107.064113. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources