Mammalian ovary development undergoes important changes during the perinatal period, moment when follicles are assembled and start to develop in a process not well known, involving endocrine and paracrine factors. In order to investigate the effect of two different hormonal environments on the early development of the ovary, we used an autologous transplant model in which Syrian hamster fetal ovaries were grafted under the kidney capsule of males hosts previously unilaterally or bilaterally orchidectomized. After 35 days of graft, ovaries and kidney parenchyme of the host male did not present signs of rejection. Ovaries contained primordial, primary follicles, secondary follicles and few tertiary follicles with morphological features similar to ovaries of... |