Endocrine Abstracts

Little is known about the place of insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) in preantral follicle development, although there is considerable evidence that IGFs are important in antral folliculogenesis. In the rat, isolated large preantral follicles developed better when cultured in vitro in the presence of IGF-I than without (Zhao et al 2001). In the same study, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction identified mRNA for IGF-I and the type I receptor in the granulosa/theca ...

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the commonest cause of anovulatory infertility in women, but its aetiology is poorly understood. There is evidence for a primary disorder of androgen secretion, which has its origins before puberty, but it is not clear how this may cause the characteristic ovarian abnormalities. We have developed an ovine model for PCOS to explore possible differences between the small preantral follicles of androgenised female lambs with those of normal ova...

The prenatally androgenised sheep, like the Rhesus monkey, is an informative model for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). We have recently demonstrated that AMH protein is reduced in preantral follicles of PCOS ovaries (Stubbs et al, Endocrine Abstracts 2004, 7 P186 ). We hypothesized that reduced expression of AMH is an effect of androgen excess. The aim of this study was to examine AMH immunostaining in ovaries from prenatally androgen-treated and control ewes. Ovaries were t...