FIG. 3.

Transgene rescue of the azoospermia phenotype of Cldn11^−/− mice. In a previous study [2], we determined that Cldn11^−/− mice are sterile. A) Gross dissection of the testes and epididymis from these mice at 2 mo of age (left) demonstrates normal morphology but the size of these organs is small because of the absence of developing sperm. The Tg(Cldn11)605.12Gow transgene (Line 12) rescues the size defects in Cldn11^−/− mice (right) and these tissues are indistinguishable from wild type (not shown). Arrowheads show the locations where developing sperm accumulate in the epididymis. Original magnification ×3.5. B) Histograms of sperm counts and sperm motility in wild-type and six lines of transgenic mice. Lines 9 and 10 do not rescue the azoospermia phenotype (Dunnett, P < 0.0001) or motility (Dunnett, P < 0.0001) and are indistinguishable from Cldn11^−/− mice in both categories (Tukey, P > 0.05). Means and standard deviations are derived from testes of three to five mice per genotype.