#follicles

Making Smiley Faces

Before an egg can set out with a chance to meet a plucky sperm cell, a series of complex developmental steps must go off without a hitch. Researchers investigating this early stage of development have honed in on the forces driving follicle development. Each follicle is a small sack in the ovaries with an immature egg. As they mature, a fluid-filled space called the antrum grows, and advanced microscopy, machine learning, and theoretical modelling is helping scientists track this change (follicles at different phases of maturity pictured, with the most developed showing the characteristic ‘smiley face’ antrum – a sign that a follicle may be nearly ready to break open and release an egg). A failure to release eggs is a hallmark of infertility in ageing and diseases such as polycystic ovary syndrome, so understanding the physical and biological forces at play could point researchers towards practical solutions.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Jake Turley, Kim Whye Leong & Chii Jou Chan

Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Biophysical Reviews, October 2024

I Know Dino Podcast Episode 301: Fossilized dinosaur ovaries from nine specimens point to an early evolution of the single ovary in flying dinosaurs. Plus #dinosaur of the day Bambiraptor.

Episode 301 is all about Bambiraptor, a small dromaeosaurid known from a 95% complete holotype of a juvenile.

Big thanks to all our patrons! Your support means so much to us and keeps us going! If you’re a dinosaur enthusiast, join our growing community on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/iknowdino.

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Called in sick to work yesterday. I felt so bloated and heavy and sore. Moving didn’t feel good at all. This morning I feel better?

Old Farts is a comic booklet I’ve been working on for Centrala UK.

Artificial Ovaries

Ovarian cancer and the treatment of it may leave a woman without functional ovaries, which may cause premature menopause and infertility. Synthetic replacement ovaries is one treatment option that scientists are investigating, and in mice, there has already been some success, and live births, from implanting follicles – the hormone-producing ball of cells that surrounds and matures each egg – encapsulated in protective biocompatible gel beads. However, for such synthetic ovaries to work in humans, they would need to be bigger, contain more follicles, and have a blood supply. Using 3D printing technology, scientists are thus designing and building gel-based meshes (red) of different formats (three are shown) to see which will provide the best support for the follicles (green) yet enable blood vessel infiltration. Encouragingly these follicle-containing meshes have now been implanted in mice, where they became vascularised, restored ovarian function, and enabled the birth of live pups.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image adapted from work by Monica M. Laronda and Alexandra L. Rutz, and colleagues

Simpson Querrey Institute for BioNanotechnology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, May 2017

Stopping Scarring Alopecia in Its Tracks

There was a time I looked in the mirror and hardly recognised myself. My hair—once thick, expressive, and part of my identity—had begun to fall out in handfuls. I didn’t understand what was happening. I wasn’t sick in the traditional sense. No one had warned me that severe allergies strip away something so personal. What followed was a whirlwind of confusion and fear. Doctors’ visits blurred…