Quick Facts
The cumulus oophorus is a solid mass of follicular cells surrounding the oocyte in the side of a developing tertiary ovarian follicle (Dorland, 2011).
Structure and/or Key Feature(s)
The oocyte becomes embedded in a thickened region of granulosa epithelium called the cumulus oophorus, which projects into the fluid-filled antrum cavity. Cells of the cumulus oophorus that immediately surround the oocyte are released with it at ovulation. At this point it is called the corona radiata (Ross and Pawlina, 2006).
References
Dorland, W. (2011) Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. 32nd edn. Philadelphia, USA: Elsevier Saunders.
Ross, M. H. and Pawlina, W. (2006) Histology: A text and atlas. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
