Figure 4.
Activation of sperm cells by SCFAs in cervical mucus. (a) Plot shows a typical multiple-reaction-monitoring chromatogram of propionic acid (266.1–210.0) at the top and [2H3] propionic acid (269.2–210.0) at the bottom of a cervical mucus sample with propionic acid. (b) Plot shows a typical multiple-reaction-monitoring chromatogram of acetic acid (255.1–209.9) at the top and [2H4] acetic acid (255.1–211.0) at the bottom of a cervical mucus sample with acetic acid. (c) Representative Western blot (WB) analysis of pERK and total ERK protein in sperm cells after in vitro incubation for 10 min with cervical mucus obtained from three different healthy, fertile women. (d) Histogram shows the ratio of densitometric values of pERK to total ERK in sperm cells after in vitro incubation with cervical mucus. The densitometric value of untreated sperm cells (NT) is arbitrarily set to 1. Mean ± SD of three independent biological replicates are shown (n = 3. * = p < 0.05, one sample t-test).