Fig. 4

Evaluation of the grafts post-transplantation. (a) Blood vessels and endothelial cells stained with CD34; black arrows indicate capillaries. (b) Ki67-positive cells were stained brown (black arrows). (c) CD45-positive cells observed in the grafts. (d) Terminal deoxynucleotidyl deoxyuridine triphosphate nickend labeling (TUNEL) assay illustrating apoptotic cells. Red fluorescence: TUNEL-positive nuclei; blue fluorescence: DAPI. (e) Representative images of haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining of the grafts at 1 week after transplantation. Primary follicles (white arrows), secondary follicles (black arrows), antral follicles (asterisk), and CTP hydrogels (black rectangles) were observed. Average optical density values of CD34 (f), Ki-67 (g), CD45 (h), and follicle recovery rate (i) were quantified. (j) Representative images of H&E staining of the grafts at 10 weeks after transplantation. Antral follicles (asterisk) and ALG hydrogels (white rectangle) were observed. $ indicates significance at P < 0.05 compared with the CTP-F groups; & indicates significance at P < 0.05 compared with the ALG groups, determined using one-way ANOVA, followed by Student–Newman–Keuls post-hoc analysis