THE PHYSIOLOGICAL STATUS OF THE OVARIAN DONOR AFFECTS IN-VITRO DEVELOPMENT OF ISOLATED BOVINE PREANTRAL FOLLICLES

Described in the present paper is the effect of the physiological stat us of the ovarian donor on the development of isolated bovine preantra l follicles during 5 d of culture. The preantral follicles were isolat ed mechanically from ovaries of calves, or nonpregnant, pregnant and p ostpartum cows collected at the slaughterhouse. There were no differen ces observed among calves, nonpregnant and pregnant cows, neither in t he percentages of morphologically normal follicles, nor in the mean di ameter increase during culture. However, preantral follicles isolated from postpartum animals had a lower viability during culture, as demon strated by significantly lower percentages of morphologically normal a nd growing follicles as well as by a levier mean diameter increase. Ou r findings show that the ovarian source may affect development of bovi ne preantral follicles in vitro, especially when preantral follicles f rom postpartum cows were used.