Fig. 3.

An Artificial Human Ovary can be formed from all three ovarian follicular cell types leading to polar body extrusion. Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COC) harvested from antral follicles were cocultured for 12–18 h with theca cell honeycombs during self-assembly. Three cumulus-oocyte complexes were placed into the openings of a theca cell honeycomb formed 21 h prior (b) to form an artificial human ovary from the 3 requisite cell types in ovarian folliculogenesis. A closeup (c) of panel b shows the theca (Th) enveloping a cumulus-oocyte complex without disruption of the cumulus granulosa(CG)-oocyte(Oo) interactions. At 24 h after placement of cumulus oocyte complexes within the human artificial ovary (d), two of the three cumulus oocyte complexes are completely enveloped. At 48 h after placement, the cumulus-oocyte complexes are completely enveloped by the theca cells which are beginning to assume a spheroidal shape (e). One of three oocytes removed from the artificial human ovary at 45 h, as in panel d, demonstrated maturation by extrusion of a polar body (f). Scale bars (100 microns) are the same for panels b, d and e