The cover image shows (A–C) The typical subplasmalemmal location of high-polarized mitochondria (arrows, B and C) in MII human oocytes (first polar body, PB1, A) stained with JC-1 after denudation of cumulus and coronal cells and imaging in the living state by fluorescence microscopy in the FITC (B) and RITC (C) channels. (D and E (GVB) and F–H (MII)) are intact human COCs (D, light microscopic images) stained for mitochondria with JC-1 (FITC channel, F; RITC channel, G) and for DNA with DAPI (arrow indicates MII chromosomes). J-aggregate fluorescence that reports high-polarized mitochondria was detected in the cumulus oophorus (CO) and transzonal processes (arrows, E), but not in the ooplasm (O). Cytoplasmic JC-1 monomeric green fluorescence showed the typical distribution of mitochondria in normal MII human oocytes, including a subplasmalemmal domain of organelles (arrow, F). (See Blerkom et al., 431-444).
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