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Follicular Development and Apoptosis

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The Future of the Oocyte

Part of the book series: Ernst Schering Research Foundation Workshop ((SCHERING FOUND,volume 41))

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Abstract

More than 99.9% of the ovarian follicles present at birth never reach ovulation. The most common fate of follicles is instead to undergo atresia, which has been shown to be mediated by a highly organised type of cell death called apoptosis or programmed cell death (Hsueh et al. 1994; Billig et al. 1996; Kaipia and Hsueh 1997). The final tuning of the large number of growing follicles to a single ovulatory follicle is primarily achieved by cell death of granulosa cells (Hsueh et al. 1994; Reynaud and Driancourt 2000).

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© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Billig, H., Markström, E., Svensson, E.C., Shao, R., Friberg, A. (2002). Follicular Development and Apoptosis. In: Eppig, J., Hegele-Hartung, C., Lessl, M. (eds) The Future of the Oocyte. Ernst Schering Research Foundation Workshop, vol 41. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04960-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04960-0_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-04962-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-04960-0

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