Covers how to recognise an isolated oocyte on a toluidine blue slide: its very large size, the pale germinal vesicle with a prominent nucleolus, finely granular ooplasm, and the clear zona pellucida, with a possible corona radiata of follicle cells. It also notes how it differs from a spinal ganglion neuron, which can look similar, and points back to the gamete and oogenesis theory topics.
Inside: 1 section · 1 min
Topic 123 of 127 in the MU Sofia syllabus for Cytology (Dental Medicine, Year 1). The free AceMed note covers it in 1 section, about 123 words (1 min of reading).
In this note
Introduction
Introduction
The oocyte is the largest cell in the body, over 100 µm across.
Stain
Toluidine blue: nuclei and other basophilic structures blue; the zona pellucida is a lighter band.
How to recognise it
A very large, round cell.
An oocyte taken from a follicle (a primary oocyte) has a large, pale nucleus, the germinal vesicle, with a prominent nucleolus.
Finely granular cytoplasm (ooplasm).
A clear, thick glycoprotein coat, the zona pellucida, around the cell.
Sometimes a ring of follicle cells outside it, the corona radiata.
Don't confuse it with: a neuron of the spinal ganglion, which is also large and round with a central nucleolus, but has no zona pellucida and is surrounded by satellite cells.
Theory: topics 71 and 73 (gametes, oogenesis).
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