Fax +41 61 306 12 34 E-Mail karger@karger.ch www.karger.com Original Paper Cells Tissues Organs 2010;192:272–282 DOI: 10.1159/000317133 Nerve Growth Factor Promotes the Survival of Goat Preantral Follicles Cultured in vitro R.N. Chaves   a A.M.C.V. Alves   a A.B.G. Duarte   a V.R. Araújo   a J.J.H. Celestino   a M.H.T. Matos   a C.A.P. Lopes   a C.C. Campello   a K.P.O. Name   b S.N. Báo   b J.R. Figueiredo   a   a  Laboratory of Manipulation of Oocytes and Preantral Follicles, Veterinary Faculty, State University of Ceara, Fortaleza, and b  Laboratory of Electron Microscopy, Department of Cell Biology, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil developing follicles was significantly increased at all concen- trations of NGF after 1 or 7 days of culture. We observed that follicular diameter was greater at 1 and 10 ng/ml NGF after culture for 7 days than at the other concentrations but was similar to follicles cultured in -MEM+ alone. In conclusion, NGF improved the survival of goat preantral follicles cul- tured in vitro in a dose-dependent manner. Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel Introduction Understanding the signals responsible for the initia- tion of folliculogenesis is an important step towards de- veloping a successful in vitro system that promotes the Key Words Goat  Ovarian follicles  Nerve growth factor Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of nerve growth factor (NGF) on the in vitro culture of goat preantral follicles. Ovarian cortex fragments were cultured in -MEM+ supplemented with 0, 1, 10, 50, 100 or 200 ng/ml NGF for 1 or 7 days. Small fragments of noncultured ovarian tissue as well as those cultured for 1 or 7 days were processed for histology and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that after 1 or 7 days of culture at all concentrations of NGF, except at 1 ng/ml after 1 day of culture, there was a significant reduction in the percentage of normal follicles compared to noncultured tissues. At higher NGF concentra- tions (100 and 200 ng/ml) after 7 days of culture, there was a significant reduction in the percentage of normal follicles compared to tissues cultured in -MEM+ alone or at the oth- er concentrations of NGF. It is important to note that ultra- structural and fluorescent analyses confirmed only the in- tegrity of follicles cultured with 1 ng/ml of NGF after 7 days. In contrast to noncultured control tissues, the percentage of Accepted after revision: March 19, 2010 Published online: June 26, 2010 Dr. Roberta Nogueira Chaves, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Veterinárias Laboratório de Manipulação de Oócitos e Folículos Pré-Antrais Universidade Estadual do Ceará, Campus do Itaperi, Av. Paranjana, 1700 Fortaleza, CE 60740-000 (Brazil) Tel. +55 85 3101 9852, Fax +55 85 3101 9840, E-Mail rncvet  @  gmail.com © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel 1422–6405/10/01924–0272$26.00/0 Accessible online at: www.karger.com/cto Abbreviations used in this paper NGF nerve growth factor TEM transmission electron microscopy Trk tyrosine kinase