Research Paper Volume 15, Issue 20 pp 10856—10874

Figure 1. Histological analysis of the follicle reserve and ovarian stroma of a NOD/SCID mouse model for physiological human aging. (A) The follicular analysis of primordial, primary, secondary, late pre-antral, early antral, and antral follicles in young, advanced maternal age (AMA), and old mice notices a negative impact of age. The total number of follicles (B) and corpora lutea (C) are also affected. (D) Photomicrographs of the ovarian stroma, showing Ki67-positive proliferative cells in purple (top row), isolectin-B4-positive endothelial cells in green and a-smooth muscle actin in red (middle row), and collagen fibrils in red (bottom row). The black and white scale bars are set to 100 μm. Quantification of proliferation (E), vascularization (F), and fibrosis (G) in the ovaries of young, AMA, and old mice shows that the effects of age are mirrored in the ovarian stroma. All analyses were based on four samples per group. ^*p < 0.05 AMA and old vs. young, ^#p < 0.05 Old vs. AMA.