Skip to main content
. 2019 Oct 29;9:15525. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-52105-9

Figure 5.

Figure 5

Heterozygous Il-6 deletion improves fertility and sperm morphology of Ncoa5+/− male mice. (A) Percentages of fertile Ncoa5+/+Il-6+/+ male mice or Ncoa5+/−Il-6+/− male mice bred with Ncoa5+/−Il-6+/− female mice for six months. White bar, Ncoa5+/+Il-6+/+ male mice (n = 7). Black bar, Ncoa5+/−Il-6+/− male mice (n = 6). n = the number of mice. Two-tailed Fisher’s exact test, N.S.: no significance. (B) Epididymal cauda sperm concentrations of 4-month-old Ncoa5+/−Il-6+/+ and Ncoa5+/−Il-6+/− male mice (n = 3). n = the number of mice. N.S.: no significance. (C) Percentage of motile sperm of 4-month-old Ncoa5+/−Il-6+/+ and Ncoa5+/−Il-6+/− male mice (n = 3). (D) Percentage of progressive sperm of 4-month-old Ncoa5+/−Il-6+/+ and Ncoa5+/−Il-6+/− male mice (n = 3). n = the number of mice. All values are mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05. (E,F) Representative scanning EM analysis of Ncoa5+/−Il-6+/− epididymal cauda sperm. Insert (F) is the higher magnification image of the head and neck region of the sperm. Scale bars: 5 μm; insert: 1 μm. (G,H) Representative TEM analysis of Ncoa5+/−Il-6+/− epididymal cauda sperm. Scale bars: 500 nm.