Figure 2.

Deletion of furin leads to anovulation in fur^fl/fl; Zp3-Cre female mice. (a) Breeding assays showed complete infertility of the female fur^fl/fl; Zp3-Cre mice. Continuous breeding assessment showed the cumulative number of progeny per female fur^fl/fl and fur^fl/fl; Zp3-Cre mouse for 6 months. At least seven mice of each genotype were used. (b) Natural ovulation assay showed decreased number of oocytes in fur^fl/fl; Zp3-Cre female mice. Image in panel a shows the size of the ovary. (c) Superovulation assay of the number of ovulated oocytes from 6-week-old mice. Data are shown as mean±SEM. **P<0.01. (d) MII oocytes superovulated from fur^fl/fl and fur^fl/fl; Zp3-Cre mouse ovaries. Scale bar=100 μm. (e) Superovulated MII oocytes from fur^fl/fl and fur^fl/fl;Zp3-Cre mice were fixed and double-stained for α-tubulin (green) and 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) (blue). MII oocytes from fur^fl/fl;Zp3-Cre mice showed degenerated first polar body and abnormal spindle. All of the experiments were repeated at least three times, and representative results are shown