Figure 1
Characterization of pubertal stages. Histological illustrations of gonads from the four different experiments used in this study, showing (A) prepubertal and (B) pubertal testis from Male experiment 1 with (C) GSI and 11-ketotestosterone (11-KT), (D) prepubertal and (E) maturing testis from Male experiment 2 with (F) GSI and 11-KT, and (G) prepubertal and (H) testis regressing from maturity from Male experiment 3 with (I) GSI and 11-KT, and finally (J) oildrop (prepubertal) and (K) early vitellogenic (early puberty) ovary from the Female experiment with (L) GSI and estradiol-17β (E2). The scale bar is 30 µm in all pictures, except in (J and K), which are 200 µm. In (B), elevated mitotic activity is shown in type A spermatogonia (black arrowheads) and Sertoli cells (black arrow), and stippled lines show accumulations of Sertoli cells not yet in contact with germ cells. In (A) and (D–H), open white arrowheads indicate type A spermatogonia, white arrows indicate Sertoli cells. In (E and H), two letter codes indicate spermatogenic cysts containing spermatocytes (SC) or spermatids (ST); spermatozoa in the lumen of spermatogenic tubules are labelled by SZ. In (H), white arrowheads indicate removal of sperm by Sertoli cells. In (K), the yolk vesicles containing vitellogenin are indicated by black arrows.
