Quantification of ovarian follicles in bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus by two stereological methods.

The numbers of different types of ovarian follicles (developing, degenerating and postovulatory follicles) were estimated in bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus using two stereological procedures: the model-based method of Weibel & Gomez, which has become a tool of broad application in the quantification of oocytes in fishes, and the assumption-free 'disector' (sic) method of Sterio. The estimates of developing follicles (follicles containing lipid-stage, vitellogenic and migratory-nucleus oocytes) made by the model-based method tended to be lower than those obtained with the disector, though significant differences were not observed except for vitellogenic follicles. Counts of atretic follicles by the model-based method were higher than those made using the disector, the differences being remarkable between both techniques, particularly in the case of beta-atresia, where the statistical analysis indicated significantly unequal estimations with the two methods. In contrast, the amount of postovulatory follicles estimated by the disector, which would stand for the realized batch fecundity, was somewhat larger than that calculated with the model-based method.