Fig. 8

PB-induced morphological changes in adult ovaries. Representative H&E-stained images of ovaries in control (A) and PB-treated (B) samples (NanoZoomer; 5X magnification). In control ovaries, most of the late follicles were healthy; in contrast, in treated ovaries, decreases in primordial, primary and secondary follicles were observed. C Quantitative analysis of follicle numbers. The follicles were counted manually using NDP.view2 software and were categorized according to the classification defined in the Methods sections. We scored follicles in 4 biological replicates for the control and treated groups. The total numbers were compared; n = 4 for each group; *p < 0.05, nonparametric Mann–Whitney test. AT, atretic follicle; A, normal antral follicle; CL, corpus luteum