ABSTRACT
In mammals, a follicle is the basic unit of ovary, which consists of an oocyte and surrounding granulosa cells and theca cells. Thus, follicular development includes many complex changes in the oocyte and its surrounding cells (Lu and Zhu 2008), which is an orderly, continuous process. Under normal circumstances, most of the follicles will undergo atresia after growth, recruitment, selection, but only one dominant follicle can mature and discharge eggs (Jin and Liu 2003). Meanwhile, the ovarian follicular growth and development was controlled by many factors. They not only include the regulation of hypothalamic-pituitaryovarian axis (HPOA) and the factors secreted by the ovary itself in an autocrine or paracrine manner, but also include the role of other organizations, which produce the substances that can impact follicular development and exogenous substances or environmental factors, which affect the normal follicular development and ovulation. Therefore, ovarian follicular development models are usually constructed and contributed to investigate the effects of these factors on the regulation of protein functions in the ovary.
