title: Influence of ovarian surface epithelium and rete ovarii on follicle formation.
abstract: Early follicle development has been studied in mouse ovaries grafted to immunologically incompetent hosts. Early follicular formation and growth is apparently dependent on the presence of the rete ovarii: the surface epithelium does not seem to play a decisive role. This was shown in transplantation studies of fetal gonads which had been divided into parts with and without the rete ovarii. None of the rete-depleted ovaries exhibited normal follicular differentiation regardless of the presence or absence of the surface epithelium, whereas follicles developed normally in all the implants containing the rete system.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004847:Epithelial Cells; D004848:Epithelium / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D008540:Meiosis; D051379:Mice; D009865:Oocytes; D006080:Ovarian Follicle / Q000502:physiology*; D010053:Ovary / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*