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The rabbit is considered to be a valuable laboratory animal. We compared glycerol, lactamide, acetamide, and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) as cryoprotectants in egg-yolk diluent of ejaculated Japanese white rabbit spermatozoa for improvement of sperm cryopreservation methods. Rabbit semen was frozen with 1.0 M glycerol, lactamide, acetamide, or DMSO in plastic straws. Forward progressive motility and plasma membrane integrity of the post-thaw spermatozoa were examined. The rate of forward progressive motile spermatozoa in lactamide (37.8 ± 3.0%) was significantly (P<0.05) higher than in glycerol (17.0 ± 3.3%). In addition, the rates of sperm plasma membrane integrity in lactamide and acetamide (35.9 ± 3.3% and 30.2 ± 3.0%, respectively) were significantly (P<0.05) higher than in glycerol (17.0 ± 2.6%). The results indicate that 1.0 M lactamide and acetamide have higher cryoprotective effects than 1.0 M glycerol for cryopreservation of Japanese white rabbit spermatozoa.
