Figure 4

Acid Tyrode's zona removal modifies distribution of alpha6 and beta1 integrin subunits on mouse oocytes. Zona-intact or acid Tyrode ZP-free mouse oocytes were incubated with anti-α6 integrin GoH3 (e, f) or anti-β1 integrin MB1.2 antibodies (g, h), then with Alexa Fluor^® 488 (green) or 594 (red) goat anti-rat IgG respectively and analyzed by confocal microscopy as described in Material and methods. These molecules were distributed homogeneously with fine punctuations around the surface of the zona-intact oocytes (e, g), but both formed patches on the acid Tyrode zona-free oocyte surface (f, h). About 90 sections, representing nearly half of the eggs were collected. The maximum projection function was then used to superimpose the different sections. Transmission images corresponding to each oocyte are shown (a, b, c, and d). Bar = 20 μm.