Table 2.
Follicle count in the postnatal ovaries
| Age of female mice | Primordial follicle | Primary follicle | Secondary follicle | Preantral follicle | Antral follicle | Total follicle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-week | 51.8 ± 16.7 | 11.6 ± 3.2 | 17.7 ± 3.4 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 81.1 |
| 2-week | 15.7 ± 4.1 | 5.6 ± 1.5 | 18.6 ± 4.9 | 4.8 ± 1.9 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 44.7 |
| 3-week | 25.2 ± 7.6 | 2.3 ± 0.9 | 12.2 ± 3.9 | 16.0 ± 3.0 | 0.0 ± 0.0 | 55.7 |
| 4-week | 13.3 ± 3.1 | 4.3 ± 1.5 | 11.5 ± 4.5 | 10.3 ± 3.1 | 0.5 ± 0.7 | 39.9 |
| 5-week | 16.1 ± 5.5 | 6.7 ± 1.4 | 6.6 ± 1.7 | 7.6 ± 3.3 | 1.4 ± 0.7 | 38.4 |
| 6-week | 9.8 ± 2.6 | 9.2 ± 3.0 | 13.3 ± 4.6 | 8.3 ± 2.8 | 0.5 ± 0.5 | 41.1 |
| 16-week | 2.7 ± 1.1 | 6.7 ± 3.1 | 5.3 ± 3.7 | 5.3 ± 1.9 | 1.3 ± 1.5 | 21.3 |
| 18-week | 3.1 ± 1.9 | 4.0 ± 2.2 | 5.1 ± 2.7 | 7.6 ± 3.2 | 1.5 ± 1.3 | 21.3 |
| 52-week | 2.6 ± 1.4 | 4.6 ± 2.1 | 5.4 ± 1.2 | 4.7 ± 2.3 | 3.1 ± 1.2 | 20.4 |
| 60-week | 1.1 ± 0.7 | 3.3 ± 1.6 | 2.3 ± 1.5 | 0.4 ± 0.7 | 0.7 ± 0.8 | 7.8 |
| 72-week | 1.6 ± 0.8 | 3.6 ± 0.8 | 1.8 ± 0.8 | 0.8 ± 0.8 | 0.5 ± 0.5 | 8.3 |
Follicle counts were performed on the HE-stained serial sections of three ovaries from each week, and number of each follicle per section was given in the table. The prepubertal mouse ovaries had higher number of total follicles than that of later developmental terms. During later stages of development, total number of follicles remarkably decreased at 16-week ovary and reached its lowest levels in 60-week and 72-week old ovary