Effect of follicle-stimulating hormone on different cell sub-populations in the ovary of newly hatched chicks treated during embryonic development

1. Cell sub-populations of the ovary of newly-hatched chicks were assessed following follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) treatment during embryonic development. Changes in cell number and the amount of oestradiol in serum were determined. 2. White Leghorn chick embryos received 1 mug FSH applied to the chorioallantoic membrane at 13, 15, and 17 d of incubation. Within 24 h after hatching, animals were killed and blood was collected. The left ovary was immediately removed then weighed and processed by an enzymatic-mechanical dissociation method for total cell count. An air-drying method was also used for meiotic preparations to study the germinal cells. 3. The pre-follicular ovary is able to respond to FSH by inducing an increase both in the serum oestradiol concentration and in the number of steroidogenic cells and of poorly differentiated cells of the ovarian medulla. 4. FSH increases the number of oogonia, which are responsible for a sharp increase in the total population of germ cells in the FSH-treated ovary. 5. It is possible that FSH acts to increase the proliferation of oogonia and a delay in the meiotic prophase through a change in the microenvironment rather than by a direct effect on germ cells.