The forkhead transcription factor FOXE1 is mutated in patients with Bamforth–Lazarus syndrome that exhibit hair follicle defects, suggesting a possible role for Foxe1 in hair follicle morphogenesis. Here, we report that Foxe1 is specifically expressed in the lower undifferentiated compartment of the hair follicle, at a time and site that parallel activation of the Shh signaling pathway. The Fox...

BACKGROUND Ovarian response to gonadotrophin stimulation is monitored with serial ultrasound (US) examinations. Sonography-based Automated Volume Count (SonoAVC) is a relatively new three-dimensional (3D) US technology, which automatically generates a set of measurements including the mean follicular diameter (MFD) and a volume-based diameter (d(V)) for each follicle in the ovaries. The present...

Previous work has demonstrated a role for the Drosophila EGF receptor (Torpedo/DER) and its ligand, Gurken, in the determination of anterioposterior and dorsoventral axes of the follicle cells and oocyte. The roles of DER in establishing the polarity of the follicle cells were examined further, by following the expression of DER-target genes. One class of genes (e.g. kekon) is induced by the DE...

Ovarian follicles are the basic functional units of female reproduction in the mammalian ovary. We show here that the protein a disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain 10 (ADAM10), a cell surface sheddase, plays an indispensable role in controlling primordial follicle formation by regulating the recruitment of follicle supporting cells in mice. We demonstrate that suppressing ADAM10 in vitro o...

Through the use of parabiosis in mice, aging-related deterioration of skeletal muscle and liver has been linked to a loss of systemic factors that support adult stem or progenitor cell activity. Since aging-related ovarian failure has recently been attributed, at least in part, to a loss of de-novo oocyte-containing follicle formation associated with declining oogonial stem cell activity, herei...

Hair follicle stem cells sustain growth and cycling of the hair follicle and are located in the permanent portion of the follicle known as the bulge. In this issue of the JCI, Ohyama et al. report the characterization of global gene expression patterns of human hair follicle stem cells after their isolation using sophisticated laser capture techniques to microdissect out bulge cells. They disco...

Cows induced to ovulate small dominant follicles were reported to have reduced pregnancy rates compared with cows that ovulated large follicles. The reason for the presence of small dominant follicles at the time of GnRH-induced ovulation in timed AI protocols is unknown. The objectives of this experiment were to examine the role of day of the estrous cycle at initiation of treatment on ovulati...

Recent innovations in ultrasonographic techniques have advanced our knowledge on the effects of seasonality on the changing populations of antral follicles in mares. The seasonal patterns in the monthly incidence of ovulations is at least partly a function of daylength, even at latitudes as low as 10o where the longest day may be less than 13 hours. Follicle dynamics involves a mid-anovulatory ...