graafian follicle

Graaf·i·an follicle   (grä'fē-ən, grāf'ē-)    n.  Any of the fluid-filled vesicles in the mammalian ovary containing a maturing ovum. [After Regnier de Graaf (1641-1673), Dutch physician and anatomist.]

Main Entry: graaf·ian follicle
Pronunciation: "gräf-E-&n-, "graf-
Function: noun
often capitalized G : a mature follicle in amammalian ovary that contains a liquid-filled cavity and that ruptures during ovulation to release an egg called also vesicular ovarian follicle
de Graaf /d&-'gräf,/ Reinier (1641–1673), Dutch physician and anatomist. De Graaf is regarded as one of the creators of experimental physiology. In 1672 he produced atreatise on the female reproductive organs that is considered one of the seminal works of biology. De Graaf demonstrated ovulation anatomically, pathologically, and experimentally. The treatisecontains the description of the structures now known in English as the graafian follicles. The Swiss anatomist Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777) named them after de Graaf. In 1827 the Germanembryologist Karl Ernst von Baer (1792–1876) discovered that although the graafian follicles contain the eggs from which organisms develop, they are not the eggs themselves.

Graafian follicle Graaf·i·an follicle or graaf·i·an follicle (grä'fē-ən, grāf'ē-)
n.
A mature ovarian follicle in which the oocyte attains its full size and the surrounding follicular cells are permeated by one or more fluid-filled cavities. Also called secondary follicle, vesicular ovarian follicle.