Metformin Improves Fertility in Obese Males by Alleviating Oxidative Stress-Induced Blood-Testis Barrier Damage

Figure 5

Metformin recovers the disordered junction protein expression induced by a high-fat diet. (a) The ZO-1, occludin, N-cadherin, β-catenin, and nectin2 bands in the immunoblotting analysis of the mouse testes. Testis lysates (120 μg/well) were loaded onto gels, electrotransferred onto membranes, and reacted with primary and secondary antibodies; beta-actin was used as the loading control. All gels were run under the same experimental conditions. The lower panel (b) is a densitometric histogram of the protein bands, and the results are expressed as the ratio of the corresponding protein to beta-actin. (c) The mRNA expression of ZO-1, occludin, N-cadherin, β-catenin, and nectin2 in mouse testes; gene expression was normalized to beta-actin. vs. the corresponding N group; and vs. the corresponding HH group. for each group. (d) Immunofluorescence micrographs using cross-sections of testes. Green fluorescence represents ZO-1, and blue (DAPI dye) represents the nuclei. for the magnified images, and for the other images. for each group. All of the above panels are representative of 3 independent experiments.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)