Isolation and characterization of glycosaminoglycans from bovine follicular fluid and their effect on sperm capacitation

The majority of published studies have reported the use of commercial heparin to capacitate bovine sperm. However, heparin is not present in the female genital tract fluids. In this study, we purified large amounts of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) from bovine follicular fluid (FF), characterized them and determined their potential to capacitate sperm. FF‐GAGs were isolated by protease digestion, lipid extraction, and by different precipitation conditions and then purified by ion exchange chromatography. Two GAGs, heparan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate B, were present in FF. To determine the capacitation potential of FF‐GAGs, bovine ejaculated sperm were incubated 5 hr with or without 12 or 24 μg/ml of each of the FF‐GAG fractions or with heparin (12 μg/ml). The purified FF‐GAGs and heparin did not stimulate sperm acrosome reaction (AR), but stimulated sperm capacitation. Fractions 1 and 2 (heparan sulfate) were more active to promote capacitation (stimulated up to 3.2‐fold) than fractions 3 and 4 (mostly chondroitin sulfate B). Fractions 3 and 4 stimulated capacitation two times more than the control (without FF‐GAGs or heparin). When the heparan sulfate impurity was removed from fractions 3 and 4 by acid hydrolysis, the capacitation‐promoting activity associated with these fractions did not change significantly. When 24 μg/ml of fraction 1 or 2 were used, the percentage of sperm capacitation observed was similar to the capacitation with 12 μg/ml of heparin. Our results also indicated that the FF‐GAGs interact strongly with the BSP proteins. Therefore, it is concluded that heparan sulfate is the GAG that is the most potent capacitating factor present in bovine FF. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 71: 97–106, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.