Hormonal correlates of normal and abnormal follicle growth after puberty in humans and other primates

History of intramural clinical research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

This article reviews the beginnings of the NICHD intramural clinical research program; it focuses on three men, Roy Hertz, Mort Lipsett, and Griff Ross, who were instrumental in providing the intramural research program with the vision and character seen today.

Developmental and endocrine aspects of normal ovarian aging

Supplies of follicles are established during early fetal life and decrease exponentially thereafter by a process called atresia. Subfertility only starts at a mean age of about 30-31 years, when the remaining follicle reserve has become a fraction of its original number. Thereafter, a further decrease in both oocyte quantity and quality dictates the subsequent reproductive events including decrease of fertility, increased abortion rate, the end of fertility, the beginning of cycle irregularity and, when almost no follicles are left, the occurrence of menopause. The same remarkable variation of age at menopause almost certainly is also present for the preceding reproductive events. When quantity and quality of antral follicles drop below a critical threshold, there is a subsequent drop in inhibine B resulting in the selective FSH rise at a mean age of 37-38 years. This FSH rise explains the accelerated follicle depletion, the increased proportion of growing follicles reaching the selectable stage, the shortening of the follicular phase and the increased incidence of dizygotic twinning. The concurring decrease of oocyte quality is in line with the increased incidence of abortions and chromosomal aberrations after age 35.

Endocrine studies of the ovulatory disturbances in Wilson's disease (hepatolenticular degeneration)

Women with Wilson's disease may have severe oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea whose cause is unknown. The endocrine profile of four such cases was investigated by measuring basal values and the response to dynamic tests of hypothalamic, pituitary, thyroid, and adrenal function, which all proved normal. Ovarian function was disturbed, as witnessed by low estradiol, high total testosterone (T) levels with normal free T, and mildly elevated androstenedione. An interference of ovarian follicular aromatase activity possibly due to copper intoxication could explain these findings as the cause of the ovulatory disturbances of Wilson's disease.

Regulation of ovulation number in mammals. A follicle interaction law that controls maturation

The assumption that developing follicles communicate through circulating hormones has been used to obtain a class of interaction laws that describe follicle growth. A specific member of this class has been shown to control ovulation number. Although all interacting follicles obey the same growth law and are given initial maturities that are chosen at random from a uniform distribution, ovulatory and atretic follicles emerge. Changing the parameters in the growth law can alter the most probable ovulation number values, anovulatory states are also admitted as possible solutions of the growth law. The behavior of the model is examined for interacting follicle populations of different size. Methods are suggested for identifying growth laws in particular mammals. These can be used to test the model from experimental data.