FIGURE 8.
DEFB114 rescues the LPS-induced loss of human sperm motility in a dose- and time-dependent manner. We pretreated and incubated 2.0–5.0 × 106 human sperm cells/ml with combinations of LPS and DEFB114 or with alkylated DEFB114 or left them untreated (CN, control). Progressive sperm motility (a + b%) was measured with CASA after incubation with different doses of the DEFB114 peptide (a). Different effects of DEFB114 and alkylated DEFB114 at the same concentration (50 μg/ml) on sperm motility were compared after 6 h of incubation (b). A significant difference (*, one-way analysis of variance, least significant difference test, p < 0.05, n = 10) was observed between DEFB114 and alkylated DEFB114 regarding their inhibitory effects on the impairment of sperm motility. Error bars, S.D.