What I learned from the class “Observation and analysis of ovary specimen”
Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, 1st year of master course
Momoka Suzuki
In this class, I could acquire the skills of making ovary specimen and observing them,and doing these experiments was precious experience for me. It was the first time for us, andthe operations needed very long time, so I thought the experiments using ovary are difficultand delicate work. However, learning about the sophisticated process was interesting, and I
really enjoyed the experiments. Observation of specimen we made was also interesting, and I
could understand the importance of careful work and much experience. In this course, there
are two things I realized important in biological research, and I would like to make use of these.
First, it is important to do experiments and operations carefully and deliberately when
we process rare and precious samples. In the observation, there are many abnormal shapes offollicles especially in samples stored in frozen. In Fig.1(a), frozen sample of a dog (Shih Tzu,
6 months old), we could observe many follicles, but there were abnormal cavities around them.
These cavities could be occurred when the sample was frozen. However, in Fig.1(b), fresh
sample of a dog (Yorkshire terrier, 3 years and 10 months old), the cells’ shape is round, andthey don’t have abnormal cavity, so it was easier to determine the stages of follicles. For
example, in the largest follicle in the center is an antral follicle. In fresh dogs, there are lessdamage in the samples, and the shape of most of cells are normal, but there are damaged cells
in frozen older samples. Therefore, it is necessary to deal with samples keeping that somesteps of experiment or the methods of reservation can damage samples in mind.
Second, accumulated experience and deliberate observation are important. Deciding thefollicles’ stages was difficult for me, because there were abnormal shapes and damaged cells
though these were in the same stage, so observing carefully is important. Furthermore, in thestudies about ovary in WRC, animals’ species is not limited, so it is necessary to know about
differences among species. In this class, we also observe a rabbit’s ovary specimen, andconnecting two follicles could be observed only dogs and cats and so on, but such cells did notexist in the rabbit’s sample (Fig.2). It is important to judge own results by oneself in any
studies, so I would like to try my best to gain experience and enough knowledge in my research.
There are many important things I learned in this course, and they will lead to myresearch. Before the class, I thought that histological observation is a classic method, but I
could learn that it is a unique method and can lead to interesting results other contemporary
methods cannot.

Fig1. (a) Frozen sample of a dog (Shih Tzu, 6 months old, left)(b) Fresh sample of a dog (Yorkshire terrier, 3 years and 10 months old, right)
When the shape and condition of follicles are compared between frozen sample and freshsample, it is clear that fresh sample has normal type of follicles and easy to observe.

Fig.2 (a) Fresh sample of a dog (Yorkshire terrier, 3 years and 10 months old, left)(b) Frozen sample of a rabbit (right)In Fig.2 (a), two cells surrounded by a circle are connected each other. The shape of antral
follicles are almost same, but we could see some differences between a dog and a rabbit.