Fig. 4

Expression of genes involved in ovarian function in the ovary after PD-MSC transplantation. a The expression of Lin28 mRNA in the ovaries of rats at 1, 2, 3, and 5 weeks after PD-MSC transplantation was analyzed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, with normalization to GAPDH as the internal control (mean ± SE) (n = 5 per group). b Localization of Lin28 (green) and LHX8 (red) was analyzed by immunofluorescence. The nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Scale bar, 50 μm. c The intensity of protein expression of PI3K, pAkt, pGSK3β, d FOXO3a, and caspase-9 and the activity of caspase-3 were analyzed by Western blotting and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and measured with the ImageJ software (mean ± SE) (n = 5 per group). GAPDH was used as an internal control. All experiments were performed in triplicate. Significance at p < .05 is indicated by an asterisk (*) for NTx vs. others and a number sign (#) for DTx vs. TTx