Centrifugation on a single layer of colloid selects improved quality spermatozoa from frozen-thawed stallion semen

The present study attempted to select the subpopulation of stallion spermatozoa that best survived a conventional freezing and thawing procedure, using centrifugation of post-thawed semen samples through a single layer of a glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane-coated silica colloid with a species-specific formulation (Androcoll-E™). Sperm motility, sperm chromatin structure, membrane integrity and mitochondrial membrane potential were studied in filtered and non-filtered spermatozoa. Single-layer centrifugation (SLC) using Androcoll-E™ significantly improved all the sperm parameters studied, implying SLC may be a simple approach to improve the quality of frozen-thawed (FT) spermatozoa for AI.