Ram seminal plasma proteins contribute to sperm capacitation and modulate sperm-zona pellucida interaction

Incubation of ram spermatozoa in capacitating conditions with cAMP-elevating agents promotes a progressive time-dependent increase in the capacitated sperm subpopulation. In this study, the fertilizing capacity of ram spermatozoa (ability to bind to the zona pellucida, ZBA rate) capacitated in these conditions was determined. The results showed an increase (P < 0.001) in ZBA rate related to control samples in basal medium that contained BSA, calcium, and bicarbonate (1.97 ± 0.19 vs. 1.31 ± 0.09 sperm bound/oocyte, respectively). A significant correlation between protein tyrosine phosphorylation and ZBA rate (P < 0.05, r = 0.501) corroborated that incubation in a “high-cAMP” environment improves the fertilizing ability of ram spermatozoa. Likewise, the presence of two seminal plasma (SP) proteins able to protect sperm against cold shock (RSVP14 and RSVP20) was evidenced in both SP and the ram sperm surface, and their influence in the fertilizing ability of spermatozoa capacitated in basal medium or with cAMP-elevating agents was determined. The results verified that RSVP14 and RSVP20 act as decapacitating factors given that their addition to SP-free sperm samples previously to capacitation maintained high proportions of the noncapacitated sperm pattern with no increase in protein tyrosine phosphorylation. However, the obtained ZBA rate in the high-cAMP-containing samples was increased in the presence of RSVP20 (P < 0.05). These findings would indicate that the stimulating effect exerted by this protein on the sperm-oocyte binding occurs downstream from the cAMP generation and that the mechanisms by which RSVP20 promotes the zona pellucida binding might be independent of protein tyrosine phosphorylation.