Application of a zona pellucida binding assay (ZBA) in the domestic cat benefits from the use of in vitro matured oocytes

Table 1 Zona pellucida (ZP) binding shown as percentages of oocytes with bound spermatozoa and number of spermatozoa bound per oocyte (means ± standard deviation (SD)) using fresh, electroejaculated (experiment A) and frozen-thawed (FT) epididymal (experiment B) cat spermatozoa incubated with in vitro matured or FT homologous oocytes. For the number of spermatozoa bound to oocytes, the mean value shown is the antilogged LSM.

Exp.	Spermatozoa	In vitro matured oocytes			Immature, FT oocytes
		n	ZP binding (%)	Sperm per ZP	n	ZP binding (%)	Sperm per ZP
A	Fresh electro-ejaculated	98	68^a1	9.3 ± 20.6^a1	113	28^b1	1 ± 2.8^b1
B	FT epididymal	51	27^a2	2.7 ± 9.8^a2	45	0^b2	0 ± 0^b2

^a-b Means with different superscripts indicate significant differences in ZP binding and number of spermatozoa per ZP between in vitro matured and FT oocytes (P < 0.05);^1–2 means with different superscripts indicate significant differences (P < 0.05) between fresh and FT spermatozoa.

ISSN: 1751-0147