Morphometrical and morphological characterization of capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) spermatic cells)

Abstract

Spermatic cells were obtained from 50 slaughtered capybaras of 2 groups (G1 and G2) and then evaluated for morphological aspects at light microscopy and scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Spermatic cells were fixed with methanol (G1) or 10% neutral buffered formol saline (G2) on glass slides and then evaluated in regard to normal and abnormal morphology, as described by BLOM (1973). A total of 52,62% of those evaluated cells showed abnormal morphology distributed as major defects (28,20%) or minor defects (24,42%), grouped on head, tail or midpiece defects; those were confirmed with scanning electron microscopy. The mean length and width of spermatic cell head and midpiece, and tail length were characterized by morphometric evaluation, respectively, as (x ± sd) 6,85 + 0,81 µm and 4,00 + 2,53 µm, 6,97 + 2,53 µm and 1,53 + 0,27 µm and 44,20 + 8,03 µm. The evaluation of spermatic cells by transmission electron microscopy have shown extended head with condensed nuclear chromatin and extremely dense nucleus; the spermatic cells tail was similar to other mammals.