FTT,
Accordingly, a central dogma of mammalian reproductive biology is that females are born with a finite, non-renewing pool of germ cells (unlike males), all of which are arrested in meiosis I (oocytes) and are enclosed by somatic cells in structures referred to as follicles.
Zuckerman, S. The number of oocytes in the mature ovary. Recent Prog. Horm. Res. 6, 63108 (1951).
Borum, K. Oogenesis in the mouse. A study of meiotic prophase. Exp. Cell Res. 24, 495507 (1961).
Peters, H. Migration of gonocytes into the mammalian gonad and their differentiation. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 259, 91101 (1970).
McLaren, A. Meiosis and differentiation of mouse germ cells. Symp. Soc. Exp. Biol. 38, 723 (1984).
Anderson, L. D. & Hirshfield, A. N. An overview of follicular development in the ovary: from embryo to the fertilized ovum in vitro. Md Med. J. 41, 614620 (1992).
This idea on "FIXED NUMBER OF EGGS" became scientific dogma in 1951 when a research paper dismissing alternative views was published. The paper's conclusion was so influential that no studies had been done since to challenge its accuracy.
New researchers made the find ( at least in mice) fortuitously when they looked at the processes of egg death. They found that the follicles the tiny sacs in which eggs grow were dying so rapidly that a fixed supply of eggs should have disappeared much sooner than was usual within weeks rather than a year.
The only explanation for the large numbers of healthy follicles was that new ones were forming all the time. To test this, they transplanted ovaries from a normal mouse into a genetically modified one with cells that glowed green. When the transplanted ovary tissue grew new green follicles, their suspicions were confirmed.
Dustin
Accordingly, a central dogma of mammalian reproductive biology is that females are born with a finite, non-renewing pool of germ cells (unlike males), all of which are arrested in meiosis I (oocytes) and are enclosed by somatic cells in structures referred to as follicles.
Zuckerman, S. The number of oocytes in the mature ovary. Recent Prog. Horm. Res. 6, 63108 (1951).
Borum, K. Oogenesis in the mouse. A study of meiotic prophase. Exp. Cell Res. 24, 495507 (1961).
Peters, H. Migration of gonocytes into the mammalian gonad and their differentiation. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 259, 91101 (1970).
McLaren, A. Meiosis and differentiation of mouse germ cells. Symp. Soc. Exp. Biol. 38, 723 (1984).
Anderson, L. D. & Hirshfield, A. N. An overview of follicular development in the ovary: from embryo to the fertilized ovum in vitro. Md Med. J. 41, 614620 (1992).
This idea on "FIXED NUMBER OF EGGS" became scientific dogma in 1951 when a research paper dismissing alternative views was published. The paper's conclusion was so influential that no studies had been done since to challenge its accuracy.
New researchers made the find ( at least in mice) fortuitously when they looked at the processes of egg death. They found that the follicles the tiny sacs in which eggs grow were dying so rapidly that a fixed supply of eggs should have disappeared much sooner than was usual within weeks rather than a year.
The only explanation for the large numbers of healthy follicles was that new ones were forming all the time. To test this, they transplanted ovaries from a normal mouse into a genetically modified one with cells that glowed green. When the transplanted ovary tissue grew new green follicles, their suspicions were confirmed.
Dustin
