Fig. 4

Deleting exon 17 of Kit promoted cell apoptosis in testicular tissues. (A) TUNEL assay to detect apoptotic cells in the testes of Kit ^D17/+ and Kit ^+/+ mice at 5, 7 and 9 weeks. Scale bar = 50 μm. (B) Quantitative analysis of the proportion of apoptotic cells in the seminiferous tubules of Kit ^D17/+ and Kit ^+/+ mice at 5, 7 and 9 weeks. (C) Immunostaining of Ki67 in the seminiferous tubules of Kit ^D17/+ and Kit ^+/+ mice at 5, 7 and 9 weeks. Scale bar = 50 μm. (D) Quantitative analysis of Ki67⁺ cells per tubule in the testes of Kit ^D17/+ and Kit ^+/+ mice at 5, 7 and 9 weeks. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM of three Kit ^D17/+ and Kit ^+/+ males, with 50 tubule cross-sections analyzed per individual. Student’s t test; **P < 0.01, *P < 0.05