Research Involving Aspects of Mammalian Egg Development

Abstract

The development of the mammalian egg begins with the formation of the germ cells in the embryonic gonad. According to the best evidence presently available, the fetal ovary at birth contains all the ovocytes destined to last for the female’s reproductive life. The slow maturation of the ovaries in prepubertal life involves chiefly the development of the follicular apparatus surrounding the egg until at puberty there is initiated the novel act of ovulation from ripe follicles. Thereafter ovulation occurs cyclically and the periodic production of eggs is halted only by pregnancy or by the quiescence of anoestrus. The ovulated egg is normally fertilized in the ampulla of the Fallopian tube, travels through the lower portion of the tube for some days, enters the uterus, and eventually implants in the uterine endometrium where its differentiation into a fetus takes place. I should like to consider experimental data concerned with: (a) the control of ovulation in animals and some applications to the human and (b) some aspects of the physiology of ovum development preceding implantation.