In vitro capacitation using bicarbonate elicits an increase in the relative abundance of mRNA transcripts of almost all studied Ca2+ channels: New publication

We have collaborated with Dr. Heriberto Rodríguez-Martínez and Dr. Manuel Álvarez-Rodríguez at Linköping University (Sweden) on a study checking changes in the relative abundance of mRNA transcripts of some calcium channels before and after in vitro capacitation triggered by bicarbonate, in boar sperm. Our PhD, Estíbaliz Lacalle, stayed at their lab doing some experiments about this item. This study merited a paper in Animals journal in April 2022 (doi:10.3390/ani12081012).

In this paper, we report the changes on CatSper channels and Canonical Transient Potential Channels (TRPC) during in vitro boar sperm capacitation by bicarbonate ions. Our results indicate that in vitro capacitation using bicarbonate elicits an increase in the relative abundance of mRNA transcripts of almost all studied Ca2+ channels, except CatSper-δ and TRPC1, which were significantly reduced. These findings, in our opinion, open new avenues of research to identify the specificic role of each channel in boar sperm capacitation, and elucidate the physiological meaning of the changes of sperm mRNA cargo.

Regarding the possibility of using changes in the abundance of mRNA transcripts after in vitro capacitation as a new biomarker, we consider that it could be a useful tool to evaluate the overall quality status in the commercial doses, after further analysis on how changes in sperm mRNA abundance could be linked, for example, to small changes in this hyperprolific animal model.

This collaboration, and the stay of Estíbaliz in Sweden, was part of our ongoing research line “Increasing the reproductive efficiency of pig breeding through the application of advanced techniques for sperm chromatin analysis” supported by the Spanish Science and Innovation Ministry (RTI2018-095183-B-100) and the Education Council of Junta of Castilla y León (LE023P20).

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