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An overlooked organ may help the ovary function

New findings in mice reveal that the newly rediscovered rete ovarii may communicate with the ovary

This image shows an ovary in green with a horseshoe-like tube in red curving around it.

The rete ovarii (in red) extends from the ovary, curving around the organ like a horseshoe.

D. Anbarci et al/eLife 2025

By Meghan Willcoxon

When an expansive curlicue of tissue sitting below the ovaries was discovered more than a century ago, it was dismissed as useless and erased from biology textbooks. Biologists now are taking a new look at the structure and its potential role.