Quantitative proteomic profiling of the human ovary from early to mid-gestation reveals protein expression dynamics of oogenesis and folliculogenesis.

To understand the protein pathways important to human ovarian development, we performed a quantitative mass spectrometry analysis of human fetal ovarian tissue from 47, 108, 122, and 137 days of development as well as in healthy adult ovarian cortex tissue. By assessing these stages of development we were able to identify proteins that varied in expression from stages of ovarian development spanning primordial germ cell proliferation (at day 47) to oogonial differentiation and follicle formation (at day 137). We identified 3,837 proteins spanning these developmental stages (Table S1) and performed an SOM clustering analysis to identify proteins that were up-regulated between 47-137 days of developmental in comparison to adult tissue (Table S2). We also identified proteins that were differentially expressed between 47 and 137 days of development (Table S3) to identify pathways important in follicle development.