Comparação dos parâmetros de fertilidade de três técnicas de inseminação em ratas wistar

Abstract

Rats are widely used as experimental models for preclinical studies in the fields of pharmacology and toxicology. Within toxicology, one of the key areas is reproductive toxicology, particularly sperm quality assessment. In this context, one of the techniques used is artificial insemination in utero, which is a challenging surgical procedure. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare fertility parameters between sexual behavior and three different artificial insemination techniques. For this, 20 Wistar female rats were used, allocated into groups (n=5/group): Control (CTRL), artificial insemination in utero (IA), Artificial insemination with sexual behavior (IAC), and Artificial insemination without sexual behavior (IAP), along with six Wistar male rats, five of which were used for inseminations and one to stimulate the females. The experiment was approved by the Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee of UFERSA, with approval number 11/2023. It was observed that 30 minutes of sexual behavior with the females was sufficient for the artificial insemination in utero procedure, while the AISB and AISWB techniques showed a pregnancy rate of 0%. Fertility potentials of 84.62 (50 - 100) % and 46.15 (37.43 - 65.38) % and post-implantation losses of 7.14 (0 - 8.71) % and 60.00 (14.58 - 63.33) % were observed in the CTRL and IA groups, respectively. Thus, it is concluded that given the success rate, the AI in utero technique should remain the gold standard for refined sperm quality testing, and the IAC and IAP techniques, despite adaptations of previously used methods, were not reproducible.