Figure 3.

Male sexual function in the α₁-adrenoceptor triple KO mouse (α1α₁-AR triple-KO). (a) Pregnancy rate of α₁-AR triple-KO mice. An obvious reduction in the pregnancy rate was observed in females mated with male α₁-AR triple-KO mice, while male AR KO mice mated with female α₁-AR triple-KO mice bred at the same rate as WT mice. α_1A-AR KO mice showed a mild decrease in the pregnancy rate from that of WT. (b) In vitro fertilization using sperm and eggs from α₁-AR triple-KO mice was successful and this is a typical picture of fertilized eggs taken 16 h after fertilization. (c–e) Number of sperm ejaculated from α₁-AR triple-KO mice. (c) Mating success rate. The mating success rate was calculated by the number of vaginal plug-positive females divided by the total number of mating times. (d and e) Number of ejaculated sperm. Ejaculated sperm was determined by counting the sperm in the WT female uterus after a female mated with various male mice. Values are the averaged number of sperm in the uterus from plug-positive female mice (e) and the number of sperm from all mated female mice (d). ^*P<0.05 vs WT, ^##P<0.01 vsR KO. α1α₁-AR triple-KO, α₁-adrenoceptor triple KO; KO, knockout; WT, wild type.