Effect of boar semen senility on peroxidation of semen lipids.

T HE livability of stored bull spermatozoa is decreased by aerobic agitation (Prince and Almquist, 1948). Hydrogen peroxide has been implicated in defects of motility, livability and metabolism in spermatozoa of various species (MacLeod, 1943; VanDemark et al., 1949; Tosic and Walton, 1950; Wales et al., 1959). Investigations not involving spermatozoa have demonstrated that exogenous hydrogen peroxide causes lipid peroxidation of membranous tissues (Horwitt et al., 1956). I t has been generally accepted that lipid peroxidation often occurs during storage of unsaturated lipids in the presence of oxygen (Sidwell et al., 1955; Horwitt et al., 1956; White et al., 1964). The following study was designed to test the hypothesis that unsaturated semen lipids undergo peroxidative deterioration when semen is stored in vitro.