Figure 1.

Representative photomicrographs of cells from vaginal lavages of ovary intact female mice in either an estrous condition (A, estrous lavage: black arrows point to representative cornified squamous epithelial cells, black arrow heads point to representative nucleated epithelial cells) or 1 of 2 nonestrous conditions (B, metestrous lavage; C, diestrous lavage). Females were categorized as being in an estrous condition when the majority of the cells present in the lavage were cornified squamous epithelial cells. Females were categorized as being in a nonestrous condition when either >90% of the cells present in the lavage were leukocytes (diestrus) or when >50% of cells present were leukocytes (metestrus).