[Development of 7--11-week-old human embryonic gonads in organ culture]

The author suggests a simplified method of organic culture of the human gonads. Gonads (160) from 7--11-week embryos were cultivated on millipore filters in penicillin bottles. During the first week of cultivation the central necroses were observed both in the male and the female gonads, but later they disappeared in some of the explants. In the ovaries from the 9--11-week embryos the germ cells underwent development which continued to the pachytene stage, while in the ovaries from the 7--9-week embryos the development of the germ cells failed to reach the leptotene stage. In the case of testis germ cells they remained at the stage of spermatogonia.