Figure 2.

FSH protected follicular MGCs from apoptosis in a FoxO1-dependent manner. Ovarian stimulation and MGC retrieval were performed as described in Supplementary Figure S1. (a) The expression of FoxO family members in MGCs of DFs was measured with qRT-PCR. (b) The responsiveness of FoxO1 and FoxO3a to FSH treatment was detected as above. (c) Transcription changes in FoxO1 in response to FSH-induced MGC protection. (d) The inhibition of FoxO1 expression by FSH was examined using western blotting. α-Tubulin served as the loading control. (e) Quantification of relative FoxO1 protein levels with densitometry. ImageJ 1.42q software was used to analyze the density of each band in Figure 2d, and the relative expression level was normalized to that of α-tubulin. The data represent the mean±S.E. (n=3). *P<0.05; **P<0.01, Student's t-test