Effect of adding Butylated hydroxytoluene as a synthetic antioxidant on freezing/thawing process of ram semen

One of the reasons for reduction of fertility in sperm is extra production of free radicals during various stages including cryopreservation, storage and freeze-thawing process of sperm. Free radicals lead to changes in biochemical and ultrastructure of the sperm membrane, decreasing survival rate after thawing of sperm. Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) is a synthetic analogue of vitamin E that controls the auto-oxidation reaction by converting peroxy radicals to hydroperoxides.
OBGECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different levels of Butylated hydroxytoluen (BHT) to improve the quality of ram semen in the process of freezing/thawing.
In this study, five rams were used for semen collection twice a week. Different levels of BHT (1, 1.5, 2, 3 mM) were added to tris-yolk based diluents. After freezingthawing of semen samples, the dynamic parameters, viability, membrane integrity‚ sperm abnormality and lipid peroxidation (MDA) were evaluated.
the addition of 1.5, 2 mM BHT significantly improved total and progressive motility, viability and plasma membrane integrity and decreased the sperm abnormality percentage compared with the control group (P Statistical analysis of data showed that the addition of BHT to semen diluent improves the majority of sperm parameters after thawing.