lower animals, but in the case of human beings the evidence of its occurrence rests solely upon the demonstration of the presence of follicles immediately prior to rupture and of follicles which have recently ruptured. Although it is easy to demonstrate ripening follicles in the human ovary, it is only rarely that specimens of recently ruptured follicles can be found and for this reason it is n...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relation between reproductive age and ultrasound (US)-based follicle counts and the reproducibility of follicle counts in regularly cycling women with proven fertility. DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING Tertiary fertility center. PATIENT(S) Healthy female volunteers with proven fertility, recruited by advertisement in local newspapers. INTERVEN...

Ovarian follicles form through a process in which somatic pregranulosa cells encapsulate individual germ cells from germ cell syncytia. Complementary expression of the Notch ligand, Jagged1, in germ cells and the Notch receptor, Notch2, in pregranulosa cells suggests a role for Notch signaling in mediating cellular interactions during follicle assembly. Using a Notch reporter mouse, we demonstr...

introduction: the origin of neonatal oocyte development is unknown. however, estrogen plays an essential role during development of the female reproductive system. anastrozole is used as both ovulation stimulating and an anticancer drug. the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of anastrozole on follicular development and differentiation in mice. materials and methods: in the present st...