Fig. 5.

Assessment of sperm capacitation, acrosome reaction and IVF of Defb15 knock-down male rats. The spermatozoa of the caudal epididymis from rats treated with siRNAs for 7 days were collected and incubated. Aliquots of spermatozoa were collected for protein tyrosine phosphorylation and CTC assays at different time points during incubation. a The pattern of protein tyrosine phosphorylation on caudal sperm after Defb15 expression is inhibited. β-Actin was used as loading control. b–d The changes in the sperm state of uncapacitated sperm (F pattern, b), capacitated sperm (B pattern, c), and spontaneous acrosome-reacted sperm (AR pattern, d) in the Defb15 siRNA-treated and control groups. The experiment was independently replicated three times. Values are mean ± SEM. e IVF assay of the sperm in Defb15 knock-down rats. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 6; **P < 0.01 vs. corresponding control). In a–e: Csi (Csi1 and Csi2), EGFP siRNA control; 15si1 and 15si2, two siRNAs specifically targeting the different sites of Defb15 sequence