FIGURE 4.

Western blot analysis of a sperm‐specific protein and CTA in TIF from men with normal vs abnormal spermatogenesis. Western blotting for LDHC was performed on 50 µg of TIF protein collected from n = 8 men with normal spermatogenesis based on testis biopsy (Obstructive Azoospermia, OA) and n = 8 men with a phenotype of presumed Sertoli cell‐only (SCO), based on a spermatogenic score of 0; these men were unable to have sperm retrieved during microsurgical‐assisted testicular sperm extraction (see Methods). Blots were scanned and statistical differences in band intensity between groups were calculated by the Mann‐Whitney test. The experiment was repeated three times and a statistically significant difference with a P value of .03 was observed between OA and SCO samples in all three experiments. A representative experiment is shown here with the box plot indicating median, 1st and 3rd quartiles, and data points from individual patients