Morphometric analysis of primordial follicle number in pigtailed monkey ovaries: Symmetry and relationship with age

We previously described a modern, three-dimensional counting method for det ermining primordial follicle (PF) numbers in primate ovaries using a combin ation of fractionator and physical dissector techniques. The purposes of ou r current study were 1) to apply our method to describe intraindividual dif ferences in PF numbers between ovaries and 2) perform a linear regression a nalysis of age versus mean PF number per ovary. Ovaries from 16 pigtailed m onkeys (Macaca nemestrina) age 0.85-12.5 yr were examined. Both ovaries wer e available from 11 subjects. The difference between ovaries ranged from 2% to 22% (mean +/- SD, 10 +/- 7%) and was not statistically significant. Reg ression analysis of data from all 16 subjects displayed a log-linear relati onship according to the equation log N-a = 4.8542 - 0.0714(age) where N-a i s the number of PF at a given chronological age. The fit for this model was highly significant (r(2) = 0.73, p less than or equal to 0.0001), Extrapol ation of the model suggests that there are 71 483 PF in each ovary at the t ime of birth. We conclude that right and left ovaries differ little and tha t PF numbers follow a log-linear rate of decline during the reproductive ye ars in this species.