follicle

“They destroyed every bloodstain, every hair follicle, every shred of physical evidence which might tell us what those officers did inside the apartment to kill the boy,” he said.

"Now that we know which genes are expressed in the oocytes, we can test whether affecting these genes could result in creating a functional follicle. This can be used to create an artificial ovary that could eventually be transplanted back into the body," said Ariella Shikanov, U-M associate professor of biomedical engineering and corresponding author of the new study in Science Advances.

With the ability to guide follicle development and tune ovarian environment, the team believes that engineered ovarian tissue could function for much longer than unmodified implanted tissue.

"The majority of ovarian follicles, already present at birth, never enter the growing pool and eventually self-destruct. This new data allows us to start building our understanding of what makes a good egg -- what determines which follicle is going to grow, ovulate, be fertilized and become a baby."

The new atlas reveals the factors that enable a follicle to mature, as most follicles wither away without releasing hormones or an egg.