Apoptosis of spermatogenic cells was observed in the varicocele rat model when the expression of p70S6K and P-P70S6K in the nucleus and cytoplasm of spermatogenic cells was significantly increased and the expression of p-Akt and p-p70S6K decreased after HIF-1α gene silencing (Zhang et al., 2013). Here, AKT1 is linked to varicocele.