Fig. 8.

Effect of anti-MMP2 antibodies and TIMP2 in mouse IVF. IVF control values were adjusted to 100 % for comparative purposes and experimental values obtained were adjusted accordingly. The block graphs depict the mean percentage of oocytes that were fertilized after incubation with sperm in IVF medium containing anti-pMMP2, anti-SPACA1, anti-tMMP2, or TIMP2, as compared to controls. Superscripts a and b denote a significant difference at P < 0.05 and error bars indicate standard error. In (a), only the pre-incubation medium with spermatozoa contained antibodies of which only part was transferred to the final IVF medium. In (b) both spermatozoa and oocytes were preincubated with antibodies and inhibitors that were combined in the final IVF medium. Thus, it is difficult to distinguish if the difference in the effectiveness of inhibition in (a) and (b) is due to anti-MMP2 antibody effectiveness or concentration of antibody in IVF media