To study the influence of season on oxidative status of buffalo semen and their association with semen characteristics and seminal plasma proteins, ejaculates were collected twice a week in winter, summer and rainy seasons from six adult Bhadawari buffalo bulls. The neat semen was analyzed for semen characteristics immediately after collection and oxidative status viz. lipid peroxidation (LPO), catalase (CAT), super oxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and total protein (TP) were estimated in seminal plasma. The protein profiling was carried out by one-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The significant effect of season was observed on TP, SOD activity and % protein fractions of seminal plasma proteins of buffalo bulls. The TP values showed positive correlation with ejaculate volume (EV), sperm concentration (SC), and % live-dead (LD) and negative correlation with progressive motility (PM), and hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOST). The SOD activity showed positive correlation with PM, LD, HOST and % acrosoamal integrity (AI). Besides that, results showed correlation of TP with 6.5, 38 and 66 kDa proteins, LPO with 70, 72, 84 and 86 kDa proteins, CAT with 70 kDa and 86 kDa proteins, and SOD with 6.5, 24.5, 44.5, 70 and 72 kDa proteins. In conclusion, this study indicated that TP and SOD activity of seminal plasma of buffalo bulls were influenced by season and were found to be associated with some of the semen characteristics and expression of seminal plasma proteins.
Keywords: Buffalo; Oxidative status; Season; Semen characteristics; Seminal plasma protein.