Figure 1

Acceleration of follicular activation and development after ovarian resection. (A) Timeline for collecting ovaries after surgery. One-third of one ovary of a pair was resected and the contralateral ovary was remained undamaged as control. Ovaries were collected at 1 h, 3 h, 6 h, 12 h, 24 h, 48 h, or 21 days after surgery. Two injections of inhibitors were administered 12 h before and shortly after the operation, and ovaries were collected at 6 h or 21 days, respectively (green arrows). (B) Injury induced an increase in ovarian development. Ovaries were collected 3 weeks after surgery. Upper panel, ovarian histology using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Dotted line, original surgical incision. Arrows, clusters of primary follicles. Lower panel, distribution of follicles in paired control (C) and surgically treated (S) ovaries (n=5). Data are shown as means±S.E.M. **P<0.01, compared with controls. Primo, primordial follicle; Prima, primary follicle; Sec, secondary follicle; Early, early antral follicle; Late, late antral follicle; CL, corpus luteum. (C) Western blots of ovarian proteins using specific antibodies for p-Mek, p-Erk1/2, p-Akt (S473), Akt, p-p70S6k (T389), p70S6k, p-rpS6 (S235/6), rpS6, and β-tubulin. β-Tubulin was used as a loading control. (D) Dynamic changes in p-rpS6 near the incision site at 0 h (a), 1 h (b), 6 h (c) and 48 h (d) after surgery. Middle and right panels, higher magnifications of left panel showing primordial follicles near the incision. Red frames, magnified views were shown in the middle and right panels, respectively. Dotted line, surgical incision. Black arrows, localized expression of p-rpS6 near the incision. Red arrows, pre-granulosa cells. Black arrow heads, primordial oocytes. All bars=100 μm