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Uneven Distribution of Ceramides, Sphingomyelins and Glycerophospholipids Between Heads and Tails of Rat Spermatozoa

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Lipids

Abstract

Previous work showed that rat germ cells and spermatozoa contain ceramides and sphingomyelins with high proportions of nonhydroxy and 2-hydroxy (2-OH) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) with very long chains (VLCPUFA). The aim of this study was to assess how these lipids are distributed between the heads and tails of mature spermatozoa in comparison with other membrane lipid classes. In addition to quantitative differences due to the fact that these gametes have a long, voluminous tail and a minute head, several compositional dissimilarities emerged between these two regions. The total cholesterol/total phospholipid ratio, the choline/ethanolamine glycerophospholipid (ChoGpl/EtnGpl) ratio, and the proportion of plasmalogens within these two classes, were much larger in the head than in the tail. Whereas EtnGpl was rich in 22:5n-6 in both regions, ChoGpl had plenty of 22:4n-9, especially in the heads. An important proportion of the head EtnGpl- 22:5n-6 and ChoGpl 22:4n-9 was in plasmenyl- (rather than in phosphatidyl-) subclasses. The heads concentrated all of the sphingomyelin species with nonhydroxy- and 2-OH VLCPUFA, and the tails most of the saturated fatty acids that are present in total sperm sphingomyelin. Unexpectedly, virtually all of the abundant spermatozoal ceramides, predominantly made up by species with 2-OH VLCPUFA, was located in the tail. The fact that intact rat spermatozoa constitutively have much more VLCPUFA-containing ceramide than sphingomyelin is explained by the present findings, since the former are mostly lipids of the large tail while the latter mostly collect in the small head.

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Abbreviations

Cer:

Ceramide

ChoGpl:

Choline glycerophospholipids

EtnGpl:

Ethanolamine glycerophospholipids

Gpl:

Glycerophospholipids

PUFA:

Polyunsaturated fatty acids

CerPCho:

Sphingomyelin

PakCho:

1-O-alkyl-2-acyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine

PlsCho:

1-O-alkenyl-2-acyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine

PtdCho:

1,2-diacyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine

PakEtn:

1-O-alkyl-2-acyl-sn--glycero-3 phosphoethanolamine

PlsEtn:

1-alk,1′enyl-2-acyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine

PtdEtn:

1,2-diacyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine

Ptd2Gro:

diphosphatidylglycerol or cardiolipin

VLCPUFA:

Very long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n- and 2-OH are used as prefixes to denote nonhydroxy and 2-hydroxy VLCPUFA, respectively). The fatty acids are named by the convention, number carbon atoms: number of double bonds, with n-3, n-6 and n-9 indicating the position of the first double bond counting from the methyl end

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by funds granted by CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), ANPCyT (Agencia Nacional de Promoción de la Ciencia y la Tecnología), and UNS (Universidad Nacional del Sur), Argentina. G. M. O. and J. M. L. are research fellows from CONICET and the Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas (CIC) of the Province of Buenos Aires, respectively. The collaboration of Pablo L. Ayuza Aresti in the early phases of this work is gratefully acknowledged.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research reported.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Bahía Blanca, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas & Universidad Nacional del Sur, Centro Científico Tecnológico Bahía Blanca, CONICET, 8000, Bahía Blanca, Argentina

    Gerardo M. Oresti, Jessica M. Luquez, Natalia E. Furland & Marta I. Aveldaño

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  1. Gerardo M. Oresti
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  2. Jessica M. Luquez
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  3. Natalia E. Furland
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  4. Marta I. Aveldaño
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Correspondence to Gerardo M. Oresti.

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Oresti, G.M., Luquez, J.M., Furland, N.E. et al. Uneven Distribution of Ceramides, Sphingomyelins and Glycerophospholipids Between Heads and Tails of Rat Spermatozoa. Lipids 46, 1081–1090 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-011-3601-x

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