Research Paper Volume 15, Issue 20 pp 10856—10874

Figure 2. Reproductive outcomes of a NOD/SCID mouse model for physiological human aging. The number of metaphase-II (MII) oocytes (A) and percentage of fragmented oocytes (B) recovered from young, advanced maternal age (AMA), and old mice, following controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) are decreased by age. The oocyte quality is also affected by age reducing (C) spindle area in AMA oocytes. (D) Representative immunofluorescence images of oocyte quality analysis, showing alpha-tubulin (green) and chromosomes (blue). The white scale bars are set to 10 μm. (E) The proportion of oocytes with normal vs. abnormal spindle assembly (top) and aligned vs. misaligned chromosomes (bottom) are modified with age. At the time of collection, the number of recovered 2-cell embryos (F) is lower in aged mice. (G) Blastocyst formation and hatching rates following in vitro embryo culture are also impaired. All analyses were based on four samples per group. ^*p < 0.05 AMA and Old vs. Young; ^#p < 0.05 Old vs. AMA.