Figure 1

Immune type cells influence commitment of OSCs in adult human ovary (age 32 years, midfollicular phase). A) Primitive CD14 MDC (green asterisk) associates with a small OSC (yellow asterisk and dotted circle) accompanying origination (green arrowhead) of a larger germ cell (red asterisk and dashed line) by asymmetric division of OSC (red arrowhead). B) A serial section shows that asymmetric division is also accompanied by CD8 T cell (white asterisk) entering germ cell and exhibiting extensions (white arrowhead). C) Divided primitive CD14 MDC (green asterisks) accompany (green arrowheads) symmetric division (meiosis I cytokinesis) of germ cells (red asterisks) in the TA (ta) and germ cells moving (arrow) into the adjacent upper ovarian cortex (uoc). Inset shows a blood venule in the upper ovarian cortex with Thy-1 differentiation protein expression by vascular pericytes (arrow) and venule lumen (vl) containing a germ cell (red asterisk). D) Germ cell transport in the upper ovarian cortex is associated with an attached activated (DR+) MDC (green asterisk and dotted lines) releasing DR+ cytoplasmic particles (green arrows) which accumulate at the surface of the germ cell nucleus (arrowhead). E) Endothelial cells (en and open arrows) of a venule in the upper ovarian cortex exhibit MHC-I expression, which is not expressed by associated migrating (red arrow) germ cell (asterisk). See text for additional details. Adapted from Ref. [24], with a permission: © Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK.