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Influence of Two Widely Used Solvents, Ethanol and Dimethyl Sulfoxide, on Human Sperm Parameters

To study mechanisms involved in fertility, many experimental assays are conducted by incubating spermatozoa in the presence of molecules dissolved in solvents such as ethanol (EtOH) or dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Although a vehicle control group is usually included in such studies, it does not allow...

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Autores principales: Bisconti, Marie, Grosjean, Philippe, Arcolia, Vanessa, Simon, Jean-François, Hennebert, Elise
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9820180/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36613946
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms24010505
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author Bisconti, Marie
Grosjean, Philippe
Arcolia, Vanessa
Simon, Jean-François
Hennebert, Elise
author_facet Bisconti, Marie
Grosjean, Philippe
Arcolia, Vanessa
Simon, Jean-François
Hennebert, Elise
author_sort Bisconti, Marie
collection PubMed
description To study mechanisms involved in fertility, many experimental assays are conducted by incubating spermatozoa in the presence of molecules dissolved in solvents such as ethanol (EtOH) or dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Although a vehicle control group is usually included in such studies, it does not allow to evaluate the intrinsic effect of the solvent on sperm parameters and its potential influence on the outcome of the experiment. In the present study, we incubated human spermatozoa for 4 h in a capacitation medium in the absence or the presence of different concentrations of EtOH and DMSO (0.1, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0%) to assess the impact of these solvents on sperm motility, vitality, capacitation, and acrosome integrity. The presence of statistically significant relationships between increasing solvent concentrations and the investigated parameters was assessed using linear mixed models. A significant effect was observed with both solvents for total and progressive sperm motilities. We also evaluated the effect of time for these parameters and showed that the influence of the solvents was stable between 0 and 4 h, indicating an almost direct impact of the solvents. While EtOH did not influence sperm vitality and acrosome integrity, a significant effect of increasing DMSO concentrations was observed for these parameters. Finally, regarding capacitation, measured via phosphotyrosine content, although a dose-dependent effect was observed with both solvents, the statistical analysis did not allow to precisely evaluate the intensity of the effect. Based on the results obtained in the present study, and the corresponding linear mixed models, we calculated the concentration of both solvents which would result in a 5% decline in sperm parameters. For EtOH, these concentrations are 0.9, 0.7, and 0.3% for total motility, progressive motility, and capacitation, respectively, while for DMSO they are 1.5, 1.1, >2, 0.3 and >2% for total motility, progressive motility, vitality, capacitation, and acrosome integrity, respectively. We recommend using solvent concentrations below these values to dissolve molecules used to study sperm function in vitro, to limit side effects.
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spelling pubmed-98201802023-01-07 Influence of Two Widely Used Solvents, Ethanol and Dimethyl Sulfoxide, on Human Sperm Parameters Bisconti, Marie Grosjean, Philippe Arcolia, Vanessa Simon, Jean-François Hennebert, Elise Int J Mol Sci Article To study mechanisms involved in fertility, many experimental assays are conducted by incubating spermatozoa in the presence of molecules dissolved in solvents such as ethanol (EtOH) or dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Although a vehicle control group is usually included in such studies, it does not allow to evaluate the intrinsic effect of the solvent on sperm parameters and its potential influence on the outcome of the experiment. In the present study, we incubated human spermatozoa for 4 h in a capacitation medium in the absence or the presence of different concentrations of EtOH and DMSO (0.1, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0%) to assess the impact of these solvents on sperm motility, vitality, capacitation, and acrosome integrity. The presence of statistically significant relationships between increasing solvent concentrations and the investigated parameters was assessed using linear mixed models. A significant effect was observed with both solvents for total and progressive sperm motilities. We also evaluated the effect of time for these parameters and showed that the influence of the solvents was stable between 0 and 4 h, indicating an almost direct impact of the solvents. While EtOH did not influence sperm vitality and acrosome integrity, a significant effect of increasing DMSO concentrations was observed for these parameters. Finally, regarding capacitation, measured via phosphotyrosine content, although a dose-dependent effect was observed with both solvents, the statistical analysis did not allow to precisely evaluate the intensity of the effect. Based on the results obtained in the present study, and the corresponding linear mixed models, we calculated the concentration of both solvents which would result in a 5% decline in sperm parameters. For EtOH, these concentrations are 0.9, 0.7, and 0.3% for total motility, progressive motility, and capacitation, respectively, while for DMSO they are 1.5, 1.1, >2, 0.3 and >2% for total motility, progressive motility, vitality, capacitation, and acrosome integrity, respectively. We recommend using solvent concentrations below these values to dissolve molecules used to study sperm function in vitro, to limit side effects. MDPI 2022-12-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9820180/ /pubmed/36613946 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms24010505 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bisconti, Marie
Grosjean, Philippe
Arcolia, Vanessa
Simon, Jean-François
Hennebert, Elise
Influence of Two Widely Used Solvents, Ethanol and Dimethyl Sulfoxide, on Human Sperm Parameters
title Influence of Two Widely Used Solvents, Ethanol and Dimethyl Sulfoxide, on Human Sperm Parameters
title_full Influence of Two Widely Used Solvents, Ethanol and Dimethyl Sulfoxide, on Human Sperm Parameters
title_fullStr Influence of Two Widely Used Solvents, Ethanol and Dimethyl Sulfoxide, on Human Sperm Parameters
title_full_unstemmed Influence of Two Widely Used Solvents, Ethanol and Dimethyl Sulfoxide, on Human Sperm Parameters
title_short Influence of Two Widely Used Solvents, Ethanol and Dimethyl Sulfoxide, on Human Sperm Parameters
title_sort influence of two widely used solvents, ethanol and dimethyl sulfoxide, on human sperm parameters
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9820180/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36613946
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms24010505
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