Fig. 1: Pro-inflammatory environment in the semen of severe infertile patients.
From: Specific types of male infertility are correlated with T cell exhaustion or senescence signatures
a–b The proportion of the major leukocyte subsets, including dendritic cells (DC), was analyzed by multiparametric flow cytometry in the sperm fluid of fertile (FER), Oligo-Astheno-Terato spermia (OAT), and non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) men. a Absolute cell count of CD45+ cells and pie charts showing the overall leukocyte subset distribution in FER (n = 28), OAT (n = 35), and NOA (n = 8) men; numbers in pie charts indicate the mean, *P ≤ 0.05 and **P ≤ 0.01 vs FER. Lower panels show the distribution of each leukocyte population in the different groups; each dot represents a single donor, scatter plots indicate mean ± SEM; Kruskal-Wallis test in association with Dunn’s multiple comparison test was used to determine the statistical significance of the data, statistically significant P values are reported. b The proportion of DC-10 (CD11c+CD14+CD16+CD141+CD163+), cDC1 (CD14-CD11c+CD141+), and cDC2 (CD11c+CD1c+) in the sperm fluid of FER (n = 10), OAT (n = 25), and iNOA (n = 8) men; the percentage of DC-10 expressing HLA-G and CD83, and the ratio between the percentage of cDC1 and DC-10 and of cDC2 and DC-10 calculated for each donor are shown. Each dot represents a single donor; scatter plots indicate mean ± SEM; the Kruskal-Wallis test, in association with Dunn’s multiple comparison test, was used to determine the statistical significance of the data, and statistically significant P values are reported. c The presence and concentration of cytokines and chemokines were evaluated using multi-beads array in sperm plasma of fertile men without (nFER, n = 8) or with one/two spermiogram alterations (aFER, n = 17), OAT (n = 32), and NOA (n = 7) men. All the analytes tested were divided into different heatmaps according to their concentration (pg/ml); in each heatmap, cytokines/chemokines are ordered based on their abundance. Heat map color corresponds to the real concentration values being the spectrum of blue to green to yellow corresponding to increasing gradient of chemokine/cytokine concentrations. Values above the standard range are reported in orange. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
