Astaxanthin is a member of the carotenoid family well known for its anti‐cancer, anti‐diabetic, anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant nature. This study was designed to investigate the effects of astaxanthin supplementation of the extender (buffer 2) on post‐thaw dog semen quality. Semen from four healthy dogs was collected by digital manipulation twice a week. The ejaculates were pooled, washed, divided into four equal aliquots, diluted with the extender supplemented with different concentrations of astaxanthin (0, 0.5, 1 and 2 µM) and cryopreserved. The results showed that 1 µM astaxanthin was the optimum concentration that led to significantly higher (p < .05) post‐thaw motility, kinematic parameters and viability than the other groups. In comparison with the control group, sperm samples supplemented with 1 µM astaxanthin showed significantly higher (p < .05) sperm counts with intact membranes (55.7 ± 0.6% vs. 51.3 ± 0.9%), intact acrosome (58.4 ± 0.7% vs. 53.5 ± 0.6%), active mitochondria (54.9 ± 0.5% vs. 42.6 ± 0.6%) and normal chromatin (67.6 ± 0.9% vs. 61.7 ± 0.6%). Furthermore, astaxanthin‐supplemented samples showed significantly lower expression levels (p < .05) of pro‐apoptotic (BAX), oxidative induced DNA damage repair (OGG1), oxidative stress‐related (ROMO1) genes and higher expression levels of anti‐apoptotic (BCL2), and sperm acrosome‐associated (SPACA3) genes compared to the control. Thus, supplementation of 1 µM astaxanthin in semen extender results in improved freeze‐thaw sperm quality of the dog.

中文翻译：

---

补充虾青素对狗精液解冻后品质的影响。

虾青素是类胡萝卜素家族的成员，以其抗癌，抗糖尿病，抗炎和抗氧化特性而闻名。本研究旨在研究补充虾青素的补充剂（缓冲液2）对解冻后狗精液质量的影响。每周两次通过数字操作收集四只健康狗的精液。汇集射精，洗涤，分成四个等份，用补充有不同浓度虾青素（0、0.5、1和2μM）的增量剂稀释并冷冻保存。结果表明，最佳浓度为1 µM虾青素，导致虾红素显着升高（p <.05），解冻后的运动性，运动学参数和生存能力均高于其他组。在与对照组比较，在补充有1周μM的虾青素的精子样品显示显著更高（p  <0.05）精子数具有完整膜（55.7±0.6％比51.3±0.9％），顶体完整（58.4±0.7％比53.5±0.6％），活性线粒体（54.9±0.5％vs.42.6±0.6％）和正常染色质（67.6±0.9％vs.61.7±0.6％）。此外，补充虾青素的样品显示 促凋亡（BAX），氧化诱导的DNA损伤修复（OGG1），氧化应激相关（ROMO1）基因的表达水平（p <.05）明显较低，而抗凋亡的表达水平较高（BCL2），以及与对照相比的精子顶体相关（SPACA3）基因。因此，在精液补充剂中补充1 µM虾青素可以改善狗的冻融精子质量。