Abstract: Premature ovarian failure（POF） has complex pathogenic factors, diverse clinical manifestations and challenging treatment methods. In recent years, the incidence rate of the disease has gradually increased, especially the younger patient population. This disease has caused incalculable physical and mental damage to female patients, and has attracted extensive attention from scholars at home and abroad. Currently, the treatment methods for POF in most parts of the country are mainly traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and hormone induction. The effects of these therapies are difficult to achieve the purpose of expected treatment, and the activation of dormant follicles abroad has started research and promotion as the latest method for the treatment of POF. The techniques of activating dormant follicles using drugs, phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10（PTEN） inhibitors, epidermal growth factor（EGF） are mainly to activate dormant follicles through cellular pathways or signaling axes such as phosphatidylinositide 3-kinases（PI3K）-PTEN-protein kinase B（AKT）-forkhead protein O3a（FOXO3a）, mammalian target of rapamycin（mTOR） and Hippo to play a therapeutic role. With the continuous development of the basic research on the activation of dormant follicles, more research will be gradually transferred to the clinical application level in the future. Therefore, this article reviews the basic research progress on the mechanisms and methods of activating dormant follicles in recent years, which provides a prospective theoretical guidance for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of chronic POF.