Figure 8. Autophagy was activated in obese and subfertile patients.

(A,B) Protein level of BECLIN1 of human semen samples in the indicated groups. According to World Health Organization guidelines (REF: WHO 2010), the lower reference limits for semen parameters are: sperm concentration ≥15 × 10⁶ spermatozoa/ml, ≥32% progressively motile spermatozoa and ≥4% morphologically normal spermatozoa. Decreased semen quality in obese and subfertile patients reflects a condition when at least one of the parameters is under the lower reference limit. Control group: lean people with normal semen quality; obese and fertile group: obese people (BMI ≥ 30) with normal semen quality; obese and subfertile group: obese people with decreased semen quality. Full-length gels are presented in Supplementary Figure S4. (C–E) Semen parameters of human subjects in the indicated groups. Data are expressed as mean ± SD. ^#p < 0.05, compared with control group.