Fig. 6: FIB-SEM imaging and segmentation of IOR reduction in Rab27a^ash/ash mice.

a XY orthoslice of the caput epididymis from FIB-SEM revealed fewer IORs in Rab27a^ash/ash mice than in control mice. Scale bar: 10 μm. b Corresponding analysis of the number of IORs between neighboring cells (n = 41 cell-pair for the control dataset, n = 47 cell-pair for the Rab27a^ash/ash dataset). ****p < 0.0001. c IOR area comparison between control and Rab27a^ash/ash epididymides (n = 57 IORs for control, n = 51 IORs for Rab27a^ash/ash). ***p < 0.001. d Representative FIB-SEM orthoslice of contents in the IOR of the control and Rab27a^ash/ash epididymides. Scale bar: 3 μm. e Comparison of lysosomes in IORs derived from FIB-SEM images (n = 4 fields for control and Rab27a^ash/ash), **p < 0.01. f–l Corresponding analysis of vesicle structures in IORs. Frequency distribution of the vesicle area (f), frequency distribution of the vesicle area of the control (g), and Rab27a^ash/ash (h), comparison of the vesicle perimeter in IORs (i) (****p < 0.0001), frequency distribution of (j) (n = 73 for control, n = 76 for Rab27a^ash/ash), and frequency distribution of the vesicle perimeter of control (k) and Rab27a^ash/ash groups (l). Data are presented as mean value ± SEM. Statistical significance between groups was determined via two-tailed unpaired t-tests. Exact p values are provided in Source Data. The source data is provided as a source data file.