For mechanical isolation of caprine preantral follicles, ovaries from 52 undefinined breed type goats were collected at a local slaughterhouse or cirurgically extracted. The method used for preantral follicle isolation was a direct mechanical procedure (DMP). Briefly, ovaries were cut into small fragments using a tissue chopper adjusted to 500mum. The ovarian fragments were suspended 80 times with a pasteur pipette and then, the suspension was filtered successively through 500 and 100mum nylon mesh filters. The DMP resulted in a large number of isolated preantral follicles. On average, 1,067 ± 160 (mean number ± SEM) preantral follicles were isolated per ovary. To increase the number of preantral follicles recovered per ovary, the ovarian fragments remaining in the 500 and 100mum nylon mesh filters were transferred to the tissue chopper, and the procedure was repeated (complementary mechanical procedure - CMP). The use of CM P resulted in a mean increment of 5.2% of the total preantral follicles isolated per ovary. The mean number (mean ± SEM) of follicles isolated per ovary using the mechanical procedure (DPM + CPM) was 1,126 + 163. Irrespective of the procedure used, the number of preantral follicles isolated was characterized by extreme individual variation. The limits minimum and maximum of this variation were 53 and 7,482, respectively. The diameter of follicles isolated showed a range from l5.0mum to 92.7 mum. In conclusion, these results showed, for the first time, that preantral follicles can be successfully isolated from caprine ovary by applying a mechanical procedure.
preantral follicles; isolation; ovary; caprine
