File:Human oocyte-metaphase II.jpg

Human Oocyte Morphology

This is a meiosis II metaphase II oocyte, note the absence of an obvious nucleus and the presence of a polar body at the cell periphery. The polar body has pushed the oocyte plasma membrane away from direct contact with the zona pellucida.

Some animal studies suggest that the position of this oocyte plasma membrane/zona pellucida space can determine the eventual site of fertilization.

MII - metaphase II oocyte

Note - Original image has been modified to remove array data, colour and other embryo images. See also File:Human-oocyte_to_blastocyst.jpg

Pone.0007844.g004.jpg

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2773928/figure/pone-0007844-g004/

Related Images: Human oocyte to blastocyst | Germinal vesicle oocyte (GV) | Metaphase I oocyte | Metaphase II oocyte | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 5

Citation: Transcriptome profiling of human pre-implantation development. Zhang P, Zucchelli M, Bruce S, Hambiliki F, Stavreus-Evers A, Levkov L, Skottman H, Kerkelä E, Kere J, Hovatta O. PLoS One. 2009 Nov 16;4(11):e7844. PMID: 19924284 | PMC2773928 | PLoS One

PLoS One. 2009; 4(11): e7844. Published online 2009 November 16. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007844.

PMCID: PMC2773928

Copyright Zhang et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.