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To determine whether endogenous KITL was responsible for the spontaneous activation of primordial follicles, rabbit ovarian cortical explants were treated with KITL-neutralizing antibody. There was no change in the developmental distribution of follicles in explants treated with neutralizing antibody compared with untreated cultured explants (Fig. 6). Therefore, neutralizing antibody did not prevent spontaneous follicle activation. There was, however, a significant (P < 0.05) decrease in the proportion of primordial follicles and an increase in primary follicles in neutralizing antibody-treated explants compared with explants treated with 150 ng/ml recombinant mouse KITL but not with any other cultured treatment group (Fig. 6). Surprisingly, the addition of a combination of 150 ng/ml recombinant mouse KITL and neutralizing antibody resulted in a small but significant (P < 0.05) decrease in the percentage of primordial follicles compared with untreated explants and explants treated with recombinant mouse KITL (50 ng/ml and 150 ng/ml) alone (Fig. 6). This was not paralleled by a change in the percentage of early primary follicles, which remained the dominant follicle population.