Effect of silymarin on rooster semen during storage at 4 °C

Silymarin is a polyphenol, which has scavenging ability of reactive oxygen species, and it can improve spermatozoa storage.
Experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of silymarin on rooster sperm storage at 4 C.
Semen collection was performed twice a week in 5 times by using 15 mature roosters. In each session, ejaculates were pooled and split into five parts. The amount of 0 (S0), 50 (S50), 100 (S100), 150 (S150) and 200 (S200) µg/mL silymarin were added to each part. After that, samples were chilled to 4 OC and kept until 72 h. Sperm viability (by staining Hoechst 33258), motility and functional membrane integrity were evaluated at 0, 24, 48 and 72 h. To assay lipid peroxidation, the concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) was determined by 300106 spermatozoa at 48 h.
There was interaction between silymarin and storage time on sperm motility, viability and functional membrane integrity (P The addition of 100 µg/mL silymarin to semen improves longevity of rooster spermatozoa at 4C.