V Garc\u00eda-Mac\u00edas, F Mart\u00ednez-Pastor, P Paz, M \u00c1lvarez, S Borragan, F Mart\u00ednez, E Anel and L Anel<\/p>\n
Animal Reproduction, Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of Le\u00f3n, Cabarceno Park, Cantabria, Spain<\/em><\/p>\n The Brown bear is a highly endangered species in Spain. The study of its spermatology will allow us to acquire the knowledge for establish a germplasm bank.\u00a0 Sperm heads consist mainly of chromatin, thus their shape should be related to chromatin status. Potential problems in chromatin may result in subtle\u00a0 changes in sperm head shape that could be detectable with computer-assisted morphology assessment (CASMA). Our objectives are to describe sperm\u00a0 morphology results in brown bear ejaculates and to connect these parameters with those derived from sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA). Four bears were electroejaculated under general anaesthesia. From each ejaculated we applied SCSA (Evenson, 2002; J Androl; 23:25\u201343) and morphometry\u00a0 assessment (Diff-Quik\u0002 and Sperm Class Analyser\u0002; Microptic S.L.). For SCSA we obtained the mean and standard deviation of the DNA fragmentation index\u00a0 (SD-DFI). CASMA results included the area, perimeter, length, width and elipticity of heads. We analysed data using ANOVA (male as factor) and Spearman\u00a0 correlations between morphometry and SCSA. The CASMA system detected subtle morphometric differences among spermatozoa from different bears (21.75 \u00b1 2.14; 21.76 \u00b1\u00a0 2.32; 20.53 \u00b1 2.40; 22.24 \u00b1 1.69 area media \u00b1 IQ range for each bear). SD-DFI (6.9, 11.5, 5.5 and 12.1 for each bear) and the area rendered good correlations (r =\u00a0 1; p < 0.01). Thus, SCSA and sperm head morphometry may be powerful tools to improve semen examination in the brown bear (Financed by CICYT