The expression pattern of BMPR-2 and Fas was investigated in different developmental stages (1-3 mm, 3-5 mm, 5-8 mm and >8 mm) of follicles and the effect of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and Fas-ligand (Fas-L) was studied in vitro on granulosa cell function. BMPR-2 was mainly localized in the granulosa cells, oocytes and theca cells of healthy follicles from primordial to late antral stages and the expression pattern did not differ among different sizes of follicles. The Fas was predominantly expressed in granulosa cells of atretic follicles. In the granulosa cell culture, BMP-2 (30 ng/ml) and IGF-1 (100 ng/ml) significantly increased estradiol-17β production when compared to control in all sizes i.e. small (3-5 mm), medium (5-8 mm) and large (>8 mm) follicles. This first study in buffalo revealed that BMP-2 rescues small size follicles, whereas IGF-1 rescues all size follicles from Fas mediated apoptosis in buffalo.

for 15 min at room temperature and subsequent wash with electrode buffer (25 mM Tris-base, pH 8.3, 250 mM glycine, 0.1% SDS). The second dimension was carried out using 8–16% precast gels and silver staining was done to detect proteins (Olivier et al. 2010). Gels were scanned in gel documentation system and the molecular weight, raw volume and quantity of separated proteins between control and treatment groups were analyzed using software. Statistical analysis of the data was done as per Snedecor and Cochran (1989). The student T test was used to analyse the various data to check the significance among the mean values between treatment and control groups. The data were

The present study was conducted to assess the effect of replacement of cattle bull seminal plasma with that of mithun bull on seminal parameters of mithun bulls. After collection, the semen samples were divided into group 1 (control): without addition of heterogenous seminal plasma; group 2 to group 5: mithun semen with half and full replacement of good quality cattle seminal plasma and mithun semen with half and full replacement of poor quality cattle seminal plasma, respectively. Individual motility, livability, total sperm abnormality, acrosomal, plasma membrane and nuclear integrity were assessed. The result revealed that there was no significant difference between full and half seminal plasma replacement in both good and poor quality seminal plasma, but the seminal traits of half seminal plasma replacement has nonsignificantly higher value than full seminal plasma replacement. Comparison between the control, half and full seminal plasma replacement of good and half and full seminal plasma replacement of poor quality semen revealed a significant difference.

Seminal attributes varied widely, not only between the bulls, but also between the ejaculates within the same bull and varied between seasons (Raval and Dhami 2010).Semen volume, sperm concentration, percentage of dead, abnormal spermatozoa and motility of spermatozoa are recognized as the important indices of semen quality and are significantly correlated with freezability and/or fertility (Fiaz et al. 2010).Correlation relationship among the seminal attributes was highly significant and positively correlated among the motile spermatozoa, live sperm and intact acrosome and these attributes could be applied for practical utility in routine semen evaluation to predict preservability, freezability and fertilizing ability of spermatozoa (Bhoite et al. 2005).Perusal of literatures revealed, paucity of information on physico morphological attributes of good and poor quality semen in mithun bulls.Hence, the objective of this study was to assess the physico morphological attributes of good and poor quality semen in mithun bull to pursuit future sperm preservation protocols in this precious species.Apparently healthy mithun bulls (10), approximately 3to 5-yr old, with average body weight of 500 kg and with good body condition (score 5-6), were selected from the herd in mithun farm, NRC on Mithun, Jharnapani, Nagaland.Ejaculates (50), collected through rectal massage method, were split into good and poor quality semen based on the mass activity and individual motility of fresh semen.Mass activity 3+ and above and individual motility 70% and above were considered as good quality ejaculates whereas less than 3+ and 70%, respectively, was considered as poor quality ejaculates.The percentage of sperm motility, viability (eosin nigrosin staining technique), total sperm abnormality, acrosomal integrity (giemsa staining technique), plasma membrane integrity (hypo-osmotic swelling test), nuclear integrity (Fuelgen's staining technique), vanguard distance travelled by sperm in bovine