Secretion Rates and Chemical Composition of Oviduct and Uterine Fluids in Rabbits1

The collection of female reproductive tract fluids and attempts to investigate the role of these fluids in gamete transport and metabolism have been the subjects of numerous studies. A number of investigators have reported secretion rates and chemical components of oviduct fluids in a variety of species using various methods of collection. The largest number of reports deals with oviduct fluid in the rabbit (Bishop, 1956, 1957; Clewe and Mastroianni, 1960; Gregoire, Gongsakdi and Rakoff, 1961, 1962; Stevens, Hafs and Kirton, 1964; Vishwakarma, 1962), oviduct fluids in ewes (Black, Duby and Reisen, 1963; Black et al., 1968; Perkins and Goode, 1966; Perkins et al., 1965; Rowan and Goode, 1967; Iritani, Gomes and VanDemark, 1969), uterine fluids in ewes (Perkins et al., 1965; Iritani et al., 1969) and uterine fluids in cows (Olds and VanDemark, 1957; Fahning, Schultz and Graham, 1966). Fewer investigators have studied chemical constituents in tract fluids from rabbits, ewes and cows, but data are available for reducing sugars (Bishop, 1957; Hamner and Williams, 1965; Mastroianni et al., 1961; Iritani et al., 1969), bicarbonate (Hamner and Williams, 1964, 1965; Foley et al., 1967), inorganic ions (Hamner and Williams, 1965; Rowan and Goode, 1967), lipid components (Bishop, 1957; Iritani et al., 1969), amino acids (Perkins and Goode, 1965; Fahning et al., 1967) and selected enzyme activities (Perkins et al., 1965; Wallace and White, 1965; Iritani et al., 1969).