Figure 8.

Characterization of Start-KO mice at 8 dpp. (A) Testis section at 8 dpp (line #1). Testes from 8-day-old wild-type and Start-KO littermates were fixed with Bouin’s solution, dehydrated, embedded in paraffin, cut into 7-µm-thick sections, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Interstitial regions containing few cells are encircled with red. Scale bar, 100 µm. (B) Numbers of interstitial cells at 8 dpp (line #1) and 2.5 months (line #1 and #2). The numbers of interstitial cells in three randomly selected 0.25-mm² squares were counted for each of the three mice. Data are presented as means ± S.D. from average values of three sets of wild-type and Start-KO littermates. Statistical significance was analyzed by Student’s t-test. **P < 0.01. (C) Numbers of HSD3B-positive cells in wild-type and Start-KO testes at 8 dpp (line #1) and 2.5 months (lines #1 and #2). Paraffin sections were prepared and reacted with an anti-HSD3B antibody. The numbers of positively stained cells were counted as in (B). Data are presented as means ± S.D. from average values of three sets of wild-type and Start-KO littermates (three biological replicates) for each genotype. Statistical significance was analyzed by Student’s t-test. *P < 0.05.