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Kelly Mayo, Larry Jameson, Teresa K. Woodruff, Eggs in the Nest, Endocrinology, Volume 148, Issue 8, 1 August 2007, Pages 3577–3579, https://doi.org/10.1210/en.2007-0590
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Extract
The last several years have produced a great deal of evidence supporting the once revolutionary notion that the formation of the ovary is a directed rather than passive process. For example, factors such as follistatin, respondin-1, and Wnt-4 are differentially expressed in the XX gonad and appear to play a pivotal role in differentiation of the bipotential ovary (1). Primordial germ cells are also actively directed along different pathways in the testis and ovary (2). The hormone retinoic acid diffuses from the mesonephros into the gonad to initiate meiosis in germ cell nuclei in the ovary. In contrast, a testis-specific enzyme, Cyp26b1, actively degrades retinoic acid and prevents germ cell entry into meiosis in the testis. These early steps of somatic cell differentiation and the initiation of germ cell fate are soon followed by oogenesis and follicle formation. Pepling and colleagues (3–5) have done much to advance our understanding of this step of the process, with their work resulting in a new paper exploring the direct contribution of maternal steroids to primordial follicle assembly (6). With their contribution, the molecular, cellular, and endocrine basis of ovarian follicle formation is being solidified, and the field is poised to address essential mechanisms underlying this process and its impact on both fertility and infertility.