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Submitted on August 29, 2003
Accepted on December 12, 2003
1 School of Human Development, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH; Division of Biological Sciences (IERM), University of Edinburgh; School of Biosciences, Sutton Bonington Campus, University of Nottingham, Leics; Dept. Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH3 9EW
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: bruce.campbell{at}nottingham.ac.uk.
Autografting ovarian cortex results in the loss of growing follicles and elevated gonadotropins. This paradigm was employed to examine the effect of gonadotropins on pre-antral follicle development in sheep. Ovarian tissue was recovered at 1, 2, 3 and 4 months after grafting from ewes which were either Hyper- (n = 12; untreated) or Hypo-gonadotropic (n = 12; GnRH-agonist and estradiol implants).
Compared with the Hypo group, Hyper ewes had higher (P < 0.001) gonadotropins, had greatly enlarged grafts, had re-established a normal follicular hierarchy 2 months earlier (P < 0.05), had higher (P < 0.05) levels of PCNA expression in tertiary, pre-antral and antral follicles and had higher (P < 0.01) concentrations of inhibin A and estradiol. Compared with time zero controls, increases in the number of primary follicles and the rate of proliferation in primary and secondary follicles in both groups of autografts (P < 0.05) were also observed.
In conclusion, the results of this experiment provide the first evidence that gonadotropins can affect the rate of development of preantral follicles in vivo in a large monovulatory species. Further data are presented to support the existence of a gonadotropin-independent intraovarian feedback loop regulating both the rate of primordial follicle initiation and primary and secondary follicle development.
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