Fig. 1

CY treatment induces short-term follicle activation and loss. a Changes in the number and the ratio of early growing and primordial follicles in ovaries removed from adult (8-week-old) female BALB/c mice one week after treatment with PBS or varying doses of CY (n = 15). (A1) Differential follicle counts of primordial and early growing follicles. Data are presented as means ± SD. (A2) Inter-group comparison on early growing/primordial follicle ratio (*P < 0.05 for the comparison between CY-treated group and PBS control group; #P < 0.05 for the comparison between 150 mg/kg with other groups; & P < 0.05 for the comparison between 75*4 group with other groups). b TUNEL staining conducted in CY-treated group (150 mg/kg), PBS group and co-treated group (CY and Rapa) for apoptosis observation using ovaries removed 4, 12, and 24 h after treatment. c Ki67 staining conducted in CY-treated group (150 mg/kg) and PBS group for cell proliferation study using ovaries removed from 8-week-old mice 24 h after treatment