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. 2021 Jan 1;11(6):2822–2844. doi: 10.7150/thno.51869

Figure 5.

Figure 5

CatSper1 overexpression rescues the impaired sperm motility and functional characteristics, and the fertility in CatSper1 knockdown rats. (A-B) CatSper1 protein abundance in both testis tissues (A) and epididymal sperm (B) in LV-shCatSper1-infected (knockdown, KD) male rats with LV-CatSper1 (overexpression, OE) or empty viral vector (control, Ctl) treatment (n = 4-5 rats per group). (C-D) Sperm motility including grade A sperm (C) and grade A+B sperm (D) in rats of KD+OE and KD+Ctl groups (n = 5 rats per group). (E-H) Protein tyrosine phosphorylation (pTyr), hyperactivation, and acrosome reaction (AR) in the epididymal sperm of rats in KD+OE and KD+Ctl groups. Representative images (G) of sperm acrosome reaction and a summary plot for the percentage of sperm acrosome reaction (H) are shown (n = 5-7 rats per group). Asterisk indicates the sperm that has acrosome reaction (acrosome disappeared). Scale bar = 25 μm. (I-O) In vivo fertility assay of rats in KD+OE and KD+Ctl groups (n = 3-4 male rats per group). (I-L) Validation of the increased CatSper1 protein (I-J) and sperm motility (K-L) in CatSper1 KD male rats with LV-CatSper1 treatment, which were mated with the normal female rats. (M-N) Representative and a summary plot for number of pups per litter. (O) Days to birth of the pup. All data are presented as mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. Unpaired t test for (A)-(F), (H)-(L), and (N)-(O). See also Figures S9-S11.