The VCD legacy: Understanding ovarian cell death mechanisms, elucidating ovarian chemical biotransformation, and developing a physiologically-relevant model of menopause induction.

4-vinylcyclohexane (VCH) destroys primordial and primary ovarian follicles, leading to ovarian failure. Since loss of ovarian function is associated with increased health risks in women, understanding mechanisms of ovarian failure and appreciating the associated health deficits is tantamount. Use of VCH and the diepoxide metabolite, 4-vinylcyclohexane diepoxide (VCD), has led to transformative studies to: 1) develop a model to study how ovarian follicles are damaged and depleted, 2) understand how the ovary metabolizes chemicals to protect against chemical-induced ovarian damage, and 3) generate a model that decouples systemic from ovarian aging to examine physiological events that occur post-ovarian failure. This review summarizes those studies to pay tribute to the legacy of Dr. Patricia B. Hoyer, who led the foundational discoveries using VCH and VCD as model toxicants to understand basic ovarian physiology and the negative impacts that occur when the ovary ceases to function.