Figure 4. In situ molecular imaging of sperm reveals the changes in acrosomal status and CatSper1 fluorescent patterns during capacitation along the female reproductive tract.
(A) Representative fluorescent confocal microscope images of acrosome and CatSper1 fluorescent patterns from three different regions along the cleared female reproductive tract (Ampulla, top; Middle isthmus, middle; Proximal isthmus, bottom) with different magnifications of the corresponding areas. (B) A cartoon image of the female reproductive tract showing the approximate boundaries between the regions of interest (left) used as grouping variable in the subsequent quantification (right). The total number of CatSper1-intact sperm (red columns) or acrosome-intact sperm (blue columns) counted from four independent experiments (n = 4) is shown (bottom). Circles indicate the proportion of sperm cells in each examined site from an independent experiment. Statistical analyses were carried out with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey post hoc test. Means with different letters indicate significant difference (p<0.05) in pairwise comparison between the different regions of female tract. Data is represented to mean ± SEM. See also Figure 4—source data 1 and Figure 4—video 1.
