Figure 4
Box-plots representing the effect of 3 h in vitro incubation (37 °C, 5%CO2) of whole semen samples with various bacterial strains (P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853, E. coli ATCC 25922, E. coli ATCC 35218, K. quasipneumoniae ATCC 700603, K. pneumoniae ATCC 13883, E. cloacae ATCC 13047 and K. aerogenes ATCC 13048) on sperm viability determined by eosin staining (n = 16, panels A and C) and by the LIVE/DEAD™ Fixable Green Dead Cell Stain (n = 6, panel B). In panel C, box-plots representing the effect of 3 h in vitro incubation (37 °C, 5%CO2) of whole semen samples (n = 6) with E. coli MG1655 (wild-type strain) and E. coli JW2668 (knockout for SIF) on sperm viability. In panel D, box plots representing sperm viability fold change respect to CTRL of 5 subjects after incubation with supernatants of E. coli ATCC 25922 obtained from a different number of cultured bacteria (100 and 300 × 106), after isolating protein fractions ≥ 30 KDa. Wilcoxon test, *p < 0.05; #p < 0.01 versus CTRL.
