Can macroscopic identification of large ovarian follicles be useful in eliminating follicles with impaired steroid function?

"In vitro" studies, commonly using porcine ovarian follicles, may generate inconsistent results when atretic follicles are not eliminated from the pool of experimental follicles. The present experiment was conducted to test the practical value of the macroscopie identification of large porcine follicles, which were assumed to be atretic. Histological observations of hematoxylin-eosin stained follicular sections confirmed the results of the macroscopic classification. The follicles classified as presumably abnormal revealed signs of atresia at the light microscopic level. Such follicles (type 2) showed decreased levels of estradiol and androgens in comparison with the healthy-looking follicles (type 1).Steroid analysis also revaled that practically all estradiol from an ovarian follicle could be detected in the follicular fluid, whereas androgens extracted from follicular fluid represented approximately half of the total amount of follicular androgens.The experimental results indicate that the introduced macroscopic classification could be helpful in eliminating follicles with an impaired steroid function.