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Comparative analysis of follicle morphology and oocyte diameter in four mammalian species (mouse, hamster, pig, and human)

Journal of Experimental & Clinical Assisted Reproduction volume 3, Article number: 2 (2006) Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Laboratory animals are commonly used for evaluating the physiological properties of the mammalian ovarian follicle and the enclosed oocyte. The use of different species to determine the morphological relationship between the follicle and oocyte has led to a recognizable pattern of follicular stages, but differences in follicle size, oocyte diameter and granulosa cell proliferation are not consistent across the different species. In an effort to better understand how these differences are expressed across multiple species, this investigation evaluates oocyte and follicle diameters and granulosa cell proliferation in the mouse, hamster, pig, and human.

Methods

Histological sections of ovaries from the mouse, hamster, pig, and human were used to calculate the diameter of the oocyte and follicle and the number of granulosa cells present at pre-determined stages of follicular development. A statistical analysis of these data was performed to determine the relationship of follicular growth and development within and between the species tested.

Results

These data have revealed that the relationships of the features listed are tightly regulated within each species, but they vary between the species studied.

Conclusion

This information may be useful for comparative studies conducted in different animal models and the human.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Andrology and IVF Laboratories, Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84108, USA

      Jeanine Griffin, Benjamin R Emery & Douglas T Carrell

    2. Department of Physiology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84108, USA

      Benjamin R Emery & Douglas T Carrell

    3. Division of Reproductive Endocrinology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84132, USA

      Ivan Huang, C Matthew Peterson & Douglas T Carrell

    Authors
    1. Jeanine Griffin
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    2. Benjamin R Emery
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    3. Ivan Huang
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    4. C Matthew Peterson
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    5. Douglas T Carrell
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    Corresponding author

    Correspondence to Douglas T Carrell.

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    Competing interests

    The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests.

    Authors' contributions

    JG performed the data collection and summarization. BRE aided in study design data collection, summarization and statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript. IH contributed by performing statistical analysis. CMP and DTC conceived of the study and directed the research design. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

    Jeanine Griffin, Benjamin R Emery contributed equally to this work.

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    Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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    Griffin, J., Emery, B.R., Huang, I. et al. Comparative analysis of follicle morphology and oocyte diameter in four mammalian species (mouse, hamster, pig, and human) . J Exp Clin Assist Reprod 3, 2 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-1050-3-2

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1743-1050-3-2

    Journal of Experimental & Clinical Assisted Reproduction

    ISSN: 1743-1050