Follicle growth in the immature rat ovary.

In ovaries of immature rats the following parameters were estimated from autoradiographs prepared after pulse labelling with tritiated thymidine: 1) The time it takes follicles to grow from one stage of development to another. This could be derived from the total number of granulosa cells in these stages and from their doubling times. The doubling time of granulosa cells was determined from their labelling index and the duration of their DNA-synthesis phase. 2) The number of follicles present in the ovary at different ages. 3) The number of follicles, which start on their development at different ages. It was found, that more follicles start to grow in 8 and 16 days old rats (2.0/h) than in 28 days old ones (1.0/h). Moreover, the follicles grow somewhat faster earlier in life than later. The development from a follicle with one layer of granulosa cells to one with several layers and antrum formation takes about 15 days in the first half of the period of immaturity while it takes about 17 days as the animal approaches maturity.