Although hormonal regulation of ovarian follicle development has been extensively
investigated, most studies concentrate on the development of early antral follicles to the …

Background Oocyte growth is accompanied by follicular development in mammalian
ovaries. Since the discovery of two oocyte‐derived factors, growth differentiation factor 9 …

Mammalian ovaries consist of follicles as basic functional units. The total number of ovarian
follicles is determined early in life, and the depletion of this pool leads to reproductive …

Ovarian reserve is determined by the number of primordial follicles in the ovary. Quiescent
primordial follicles are activated for growth and pass through stages of development before …

Although enormous progress has been made in understanding the events and regulation of
the later stages of ovarian follicular development, the early stages of development, to a large …

In addition to pituitary gonadotropins and paracrine factors, ovarian follicle development is
also modulated by oocyte factors capable of stimulating granulosa cell proliferation but …

Transgenic mice with deletion of the GDF-9 (growth differentiation factor-9) gene are
characterized by the arrest of ovarian follicle development at the primary stage. Based on …

Growth differentiation factor-9 (GDF-9) is a growth factor and a member of the TGFβ
superfamily that is secreted by oocytes in growing ovarian follicles. In the current study we …

Guanylyl cyclase B is the receptor for a small peptide (C-type natriuretic peptide) produced
locally in many different tissues. To unravel the functions of the receptor, we generated mice …

In-vitro maturation (IVM) of human ovarian follicles and oocytes could benefit infertile
women, and allow the development of in-vitro systems for the study of human follicular …