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. 2011 Sep 23;26(12):3249–3263. doi: 10.1093/humrep/der317

Figure 4.

Figure 4

A combination of glucose and pyruvate generates ATP concentrations sufficient to support motility, hyperactivation and tyrosine phosphorylation when mitochondrial respiration is blocked by NaCN. Purified human spermatozoa were incubated under capacitating conditions for 120 min in the absence (white bars) or presence (black bars) of 10 mM NaCN and 5 mM of the metabolic substrates glucose, pyruvate or a combination of glucose and pyruvate. (A) ATP concentrations measured by luminescence. (B–E) Sperm motility evaluated by CASA. (B) Motility (%), (C) progressive motility (%), (D) VCL (µm/s) and (E) hyperactive motility (%). Experiment A is presented as mean ± SEM from three separate experiments (n= 9). Experiment B–E are presented as mean ± SEM from five separate experiments (n= 10). (F) Total tyrosine phosphorylation levels detected by immunoblotting with pY antibodies, anti-α-tubulin antibodies were used as loading control. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001, n.s., not significant.