02089naa a2200313 a 450000100080000000500110000800800410001902200140006002400380007410000150011224501240012726000090025150004470026052006980070765300120140565300210141765300110143865300210144965300490147070000190151970000200153870000180155870000160157670000160159270000190160870000170162770000170164477301140166110637062022-11-07       2022    bl uuuu     u00u1 u    #d  a1932-62037 a10.1371/journal.pone.02753962DOI1 aHYDE, K.A.  aCharacterization of preantral follicle clustering and neighborhood patterns in the equine ovary.h[electronic resource]  c2022  aArticle history: Received June 10 2022; Accepted September 14 2022; Published October 4 2022. Editor: Meijia Zhang, China Agricultural University, CHINA. -- 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. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ) --  aABSTRACT. - Understanding the transition from quiescent primordial follicles to activated primary follicles is vital for characterizing ovarian folliculogenesis and improving assisted reproductive techniques. To date, no study has investigated preantral follicle crowding in the ovaries of livestock or characterized these crowds according to follicular morphology and ovarian location (portions and regions) in any species. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the crowding (clustering and neighborhood) patterns of preantral follicles in the equine ovary according to mare age, follicular morphology and developmental stage, and spatial location in the ovary.   © 2022 Hyde et al. T  aAnimals  aCluster Analysis  aHorses  aOvarian Follicle  aPLATAFORMA DE INVESTIGACIÓN EN SALUD ANIMAL1 aAGUIAR, F.L.N.1 aALVARENGA, P.B.1 aREZENDE, A.L.1 aALVES, B.G.1 aALVES, K.A.1 aGASTAL, G.D.A.1 aGASTAL, M.O.1 aGASTAL, E.L.  tPLoS ONE, 2022, Volume 17, Issue 10, e0275396. OPEN ACCESS. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275396