The human ovarian granulosa cell is perhaps the most widely studied endocrine cell, but little quantitative structural information exists for this cell. In the present study new and traditional stereological probes have been employed to provide quantitative structural information on these functionally important cells. Granulosa cells were obtained from follicular aspirations from 10 women during in vitro fertilisation procedures. Initially 2 methods were used to estimate the mean nuclear volume of these cells: the mean number weighted nuclear volume was estimated by the Selector and the mean volume weighted nuclear volume by the point sampled intercept method. It was found that the difference between the 2 volume estimates was only 8.5%. The volume weighted mean nuclear volume was used as an estimate of nuclear volume. This was subsequently corrected (taking the percentage difference as the empirical bias) and combined with fractional cell volumes (Vv) to produce estimates of cell, mitochondrial, lipid and nucleolar volume. The proportion of the cell occupied by the nucleus had a remarkably low interindividual variation (CV = 7.6%). The proportion of the nucleus occupied by euchromatin also had a striking low variation (CV < 6%). All other cellular parameters had CVs of less than 35%. The lipid composition of these cells showed the greatest interindividual variability, with a CV of 42% for relative and 54% for absolute volume. The present study outlines a simple protocol for the quantitation of granulosa cell structure using new unbiased stereological probes and providing baseline structural information.

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