Proliferative activity of preovulatory follicles and newly formed corpora lutea in cycling rats from late prooestrus to early oestrus |
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Authors: | FRANCISCO GAYTÁ N,CARMEN BELLIDO,CONCEPCIÓ N MORALES,ENRIQUE AGUILAR, JOSÉ EUGENIO SÁ NCHEZ-CRIADO |
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Affiliation: | Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Cordoba, Spain;Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Cordoba, Spain;Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Cordoba, Spain |
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Abstract: | Ovaries from adult cycling rats were studied from 1600 h on the day of prooestrus to 0700 h on the day of oestrus in order to relate the cyclic hormonal changes to the proliferative activity of preovulatory and postovulatory (i.e. newly-formed corpora lutea) follicles. Proliferative activity was studied by the immunohistochemical demonstration of DNA-incorporated 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU). The proliferative activity of granulosa cells (GC) in large preovulatory follicles showed a centripetal pattern and decreased during prooestrus, reaching a minimum at 2100 h. However, a proliferative wave was found in the GC of preovulatory follicles at 0200 h on the day of oestrus and in those of newly-formed corpora lutea at 0700 h on the day of oestrus. These results suggest that the granulosa cells of preovulatory follicles show maturational changes that followed a different pattern, depending on their location within the follicle, and that the proliferative wave found from 0200 to 0700 h on oestrus is important for the establishment of the number of steroidogenic cells in the cyclic corpus luteum. |
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Keywords: | Ovary corpus luteum |
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