Figure 5.

Ovulation of PDE4D-deficient mice. (A) Ovulation rate (oocytes/mouse) of mice at different ages of development. Wild-type (+/+) and homozygous null (−/−) mice were treated with PMSG and hCG as described in Materials and Methods. Ovulated oocytes were recovered from the ampulla of the oviducts. Data are the mean ± SEM. PDE4D^−/− mice are significantly different from PDE4D^+/+ mice with P < 0.001 (analyzed by ANOVA). The gray area within the bar represents the degenerated oocytes recovered in the adult mice. Numbers in the brackets indicate the number of mice used in each group. (B) Histological appearance of ovaries from pubertal PDE4D^−/− mice (Upper, ×16; Lower, ×52). Mice were treated for superovulation, and ovaries were dissected, fixed, sectioned, and stained. Luteinized follicles with trapped oocytes are indicated by arrowheads.