T. A. Fitz is the first author of a 1982 study distinguishing two steroid-producing cell populations in the sheep corpus luteum. The researchers separated small and large luteal cells before measuring progesterone secretion and responses to stimulating substances. Comparing separated populations allowed a tissue-level output to be related to its cellular components.[ref]
Without stimulation, equal numbers of large luteal cells released about 20 times as much progesterone as the small-cell population. The equal-count comparison is essential: a higher total secretion could otherwise arise merely because one preparation contained more cells. It also explains why a change in the mixture of cell types can alter total tissue secretion even when each population's individual behavior stays unchanged.[ref]

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