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Factors Influencing Metabolic Activity of Bull Spermatozoa. IV. pH, Osmotic Pressure, and the Cations, Sodium, Potassium, and Calcium

Department of Dairy Science, University of Illinois, Urbana

ABSTRACT

The combined effects of increasing pH from 4 to 8, of increasing potassium concentration, at the expense of sodium, and of varying osmotic pressure on the aerobic metabolic responses of washed bovine spermatozoa provided with fructose have been determined in one experiment. Low pH and high potassium levels were found to be inhibitory of all measures of metabolism (oxygen uptake, fructose utilization, and lactic acid accumulation). Osmotic pressure had no significant effect. In a second experiment, variations in the calcium level of the diluent replaced the variations in the osmotic pressure. The inhibitory effect of potassium was eliminated by the presence of calcium. Consequently, pH was the only variable affecting metabolic response. The uptake of fructose in the first few minutes after resuspension of the washed cells in a fructose-containing diluent is more rapid if the diluent has a pH of 5 than if it has a pH of 7.5, though on continued exposure the utilization ceases at the low pH but continues unabated at the higher one.

¹ Present address: UT-AEC Agricultural Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 142, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.