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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Ovarian Tissue Culture to Visualize Phenomena in Mouse Ovary
Published on: June 19, 2018
The development of mouse oocyte cortical reaction competence is accompanied by major changes in cortical vesicles and
T Ducibella1, S Rangarajan, E Anderson
1Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology, Tufts University, School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02111.
Abstract:
The basis for the incompetence of the cortical reaction in germinal vesicle stage (GV) mouse oocytes was studied by evaluating cortical granules (CGs) and vesicles in GV and mature oocyte cortices. Dark and light CGs had a similar mean distance of 0.4-0.6 micron from the plasma membrane for GV and mature cortices. The cortex of mature oocytes had a large population of membrane-bounded, 0.1-1.0 micron (diameter) vesicles. More than three times as many vesicles were observed in the CG domains of mature oocytes as were observed in GV oocytes. This lack of cortical vesicles (with their potential to store calcium) and not CG depth may account for cortical reaction incompetence in GV oocytes.
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