Protein hormone action: a key to understanding ovarian follicular and luteal cell development

The objectives of this presentation are to review certain aspects of follicular and luteal cell development, to relate these developmental changes to recent observations concerning the actions of the protein hormones, FSU, LU and prolactin (PRL), and to propose hypotheses which attempt to account for why so many follicles undergo atresia and so few ovulate, and to propose further hypotheses which try to explain why corpora lutea formed during the cycle regress while those formed during pseudo-pregnancy or pregnancy become fully func-tional. One of the striking features of the mammali-an ovary is that it contains a non-proliferatin