Fig 6. TLR2/4 blocker inhibited TLR signal transduction pathways in BEECs in response to sperm.

Sub-confluent BEECs monolayers were incubated for 2 h with 0.1 μM TLR2 antagonist or 100 ng/ml TLR4 antibody, then stimulated with 10⁶/ml sperm for 1 h. Western blotting was then carried out to estimate the phosphorylation levels of A) p38MAPK, B) JNK, C) ERK1/2, D) NFkB, and E) IRF3 in the different groups. Data are presented as mean ± SEM of 3 independent experiments using epithelial cells from 3 different uteri (3 wells per treatment per experiment). Asterisk (*) denotes a significant variance (P< 0.05) between TLR2/4 blocking groups when compared with sperm group.