The structure of and the cytological changes which take place in the epithelium of the rabbit oviduct during the reproductive cycle have been studied by techniques of light and electron microscopy. The pseudostratified columnar epithelium consists of 2 cell types: ciliated and secretory. Ciliated cells predominate in the infundibulum, and make up approximately half of the highly folded epithelium of the ampulla and isthmus. The more electron-dense secretory cells in the precoitus oviduct contain an abundance of free ribosomes and rough endoplasmic reticulum, a well developed Golgi complex, and many dark secretory granules in the apical portions. The apices of these cells commonly extend beyond the level of adjacent ciliated cells, and occasionally discharge their secretion granules. Oviducts of one rabbit at each of 13, 24, 48, 72, 108 hr and 10 and 14 days postcoitum were utilized in this study. After coitus, when the ova and early cleavage stages are passing down the oviduct, the secretory cells assume a goblet shape, with many electron-lucent granules massed in the apical portion of the cell. These granules are discharged, usually with their encompassing membranes, between 24 and 72 hr postcoitum. Histochemical tests indicate that the secretory material is a muco- or glycoprotein or an acid mucopolysaccharide. Subsequent to the discharge of the electron-lucent granules, the secretory cells become elongated, but persist and take part in the ensuing secretory cycle. The sequestration of the secretory material takes place continuously during the reproductive cycle in the saccules of the Golgi complex. The contribution of the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi complex to the secretion granules and the role of the secretion in the reproductive process is discussed.
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Lurana K Brower (1969) studied this question.