Polypeptide patterns of follicular fluid at different stages of follicular maturation

The fact that some oocytes may remain up to four decades in the dictyate stage of the first meiotic division impressively underlines the biological potency of meiotic inhibition and promotion. Previous observations that resumption of meiosis in explanted oocytes can be inhibited by addition of immature follicular fluid in vitro 1 prompted us to investigate changes in follicular-fluid proteins and peptides during oocyte maturation in vivo, since we speculated that such changes might be entailed in meiotic regulation.