Effect of different sugars supplemented to the extender in combination with cholesterol-loaded cyclodextrin (CLC) on post-thaw quality of ram spermatozoa

•CLC pre-treatment significantly increased post-thaw sperm parameters in ram.•Trehalose and CLC-pretreatment might have interaction to enhance the post-thaw sperm quality.•Overall, there was no additive effect of sugars evaluated and CLC pretreatment on sperm quality.

The present study was designed to determine the effect of different sugars supplemented to the extender on post-thaw quality of CLC treated ram sperm. The ejaculates (n = 10) were divided into two aliquots: first aliquot was treated with CLC (3 mg/120 × 106 sperm), whereas, second aliquot remained untreated and served as control. The samples were then incubated at 35 °C for 15 min. After incubation, each aliquot was again divided into 3 equal subgroups. Each of the subgroups was then diluted with one of the extenders containing fructose, sucrose or trehalose (28 mM) to make a final sperm concentration 200 × 106/ml. After dilution, the semen samples were loaded into 0.25 ml straws and cryopreserved using standard procedure. The data showed that type of the sugar did not affect post-thaw sperm parameters (P > 0.05). However, the CLC pre-treatment improved (P < 0.05) motile, live, live-intact, total intact and the number of total active sperm per straw. A non-significant interaction (P > 0.05) was determined between type of sugar and CLC. In conclusion, CLC pre-treatment significantly improved post-thaw sperm parameters in ram and has no interaction with any of the used sugars.