Histomorphological studies on the postnatal development of the
female reproductive tract in the rabbit
‫دراسات هستومورفولوجية على تطور القناة التناسلية النثوية بعد الوالدة فى االرنب‬
Manal Towfeik Hussein Mohamed
‫منال توفيق حسين محمد‬
Aziza Abdel Aziz Mahmoud, Gamal Kamel Mohamed, Enas Ahmed Abdel Hafez
‫ إناس أحمد عبدالحافظ‬,‫ جمال كامل محمد‬,‫عزيزة عبدالعزيز محمود‬
Abstract:
The female reproductive tract of 21 completely healthy white female
New Zealand rabbits, ranged from one day to sixteen weeks of postnatal
life, was used in the present study. These animals were obtained from the
animal house at the Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University.
The biometrical data and the histological studies of the female
reproductive tract revealed that:
- At the first day of age, the female reproductive tract of rabbits
appeared as a thin, straight tube having a more or less the same
diameter without any line of demarcation between the uterine tube and
the uterus. However, at one week of age, this demarcation was
observed.
- The growth pattern in the weight and length of the rabbit’s female
reproductive tract was correlated to the increase in the body and the
ovary weights during the postnatal development.
The biometrical data of the length and the weight of the tract revealed
that there were three stages of development; firstly, slow over the
period from one day to four weeks; then progressively increased from
four to eight weeks old and finally, these parameters were obviously
increased from eight to sixteen weeks old.
- At one week of life, the rabbit’s uterine tube started to differentiate
histologically into an infundibulum, ampulla and isthmus.
- No mucosal folds could be detected into the uterine tube of one day
old rabbits. These folds started to develop at one week age. They were
represented by few and short folds which increased in number, height
and branching with the advancement of age. On the other hand, these
folds decreased in the number and height aback the infundibulum
towards the isthmus. At one day old, the uterine tube was lined with
Summary
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short columnar or pseudostratified columnar epithelium, showing few
mitotic figures.
- At one week of postnatal development, various degrees of epithelial
cell differentiation were demonstrated by the presence of ciliogenic
activity in all regions of the uterine tube. This activity was represented
by the appearance of the basal bodies in some cells. Other cells with
very short cilia as well as undifferentiated cells were also observed.
At two weeks, ciliated cells with long cilia could be detected; in
addition, the secretory cells in the ampulla and the isthmus were
firstly demonstrated. Many apoptotic cells were also observed along
the luminal epithelium of the three regions of the uterine tube at this
age.
At the age of four weeks, the mucosal folds of the infundibulum
did not show any secretory cells, however at the ampulla and isthmus,
most of the cells had been differentiated into ciliated and secretory
cells.
At eight weeks, the differentiation of secretory cells in the
infundibulum firstly appeared. They reacted positively to PAS, and
slightly to PAS/Alcian blue technique.
At the age of eight to twelve weeks, the number of the secretory at
the ampulla was nearly equal to the ciliated cells. However, at the
isthmus, the number of the secretory cells exceeded that of the ciliated
cells. At these ages, disappearance of apoptotic and the
undifferentiated cell