| Oxidative stress could be prevented by antioxidant loaded nanoparticles. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of 10 (A10), 20 (A20), 30 (A30), 40 (A40) and 50 (A50) μM alpha-lipoic acid and alpha-lipoic acid nanostructured lipid carriers (ALN) at 10 (ALN10), 20 (ALN20), 30 (ALN30), 40 (ALN40) and 50 (ALN50) μM on post-thawed sperm quality, fertility and apoptosis related genes of rooster sperm. The extender supplemented with ALN30 led to higher total and progressive motility, straight-line velocity (VSL) and Linearity (LIN) in comparison to the control group. ALN30 resulted in higher percentage of mitochondria activity and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) level compared to control (P<0.05). The extender supplemented with ALN30 led to lower percentage of apoptotic sperm, when compared to the control. CASPASE 3 expression in ALN30 was lower (P < 0.05) than the other groups. The results showed that BCL-2 mRNA expression of sperm was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in ALN30 compared with the other groups (P < 0.05). Higher percentages of fertility and hatchability rates were observed in ALN30 group. The results indicate that ALN30 could be regarded as a novel potential cryoprotectant for the cryopreservation of rooster semen. Therefore, nanostructured lipid carriers improve not only the active compound (such as alpha-lipoic acid) of biomedical applicability but also the potential for industrial application in sperm cryopreservation. |