An Autoradiographic Method for the Study of Egg Transport in the Rabbit Fallopian Tube

Abstract

A new technique is described in which 120-µ anionic resin spheres, impregnated with the radioactive gold isotope 198Au, are employed to simulate rabbit eggs. By their use, a study has been made of the pattern of egg transport in the Fallopian tube of the rabbit in vivo. (2) It has been shown that, in the first 8 hr after ovulation, the spheres have travelled 49% of the length of the tube. During the next 40 hr, movement down the tube is very slow until, at 48 hr after ovulation, the spheres are concentrated above the utero-tubal junction, 79% of the distance down the tube. (3) It has been possible to study the passage of the spheres into the uterus both at 56 and 64 hr after ovulation. Of the total number of spheres studied, 55% had passed into the uterus at the earlier and 90% at the later time. (4) Evidence is also included to show that the movement of the spheres reproduces the normal movement of eggs fairly closely. Their mean rate of progress is some 4% slower than the eggs, and this is due to a small proportion of the spheres lagging or even sticking at the site of transfer. It is also shown that the presence of spheres in the Fallopian tube does not affect normal egg movement. (5) The determination of the rates of tubai transport presented here will be a basis for further comparative studies upon the effect of certain hormonal treatments.

A Biophysicist's View of Ovum Transport

“…As the ovum proceeds toward the uterine end of the tube, the relative probability of a contraction occurring on the ampullary side of the ovum increases. One would therefore expect the mean ovum velocity to increase with position along the tube, a hypothesis in agreement with the mean velo city curves of H arper et al [17]. Only contractions near an ovum are effective in developing sufficient pressure gradients across the ovum to overcome the forces resistive to motion.…”

“…However, although the mech anism is complex and contains a highly random component, variability in average transport rates is surprisingly small between different ova in the same oviduct, between rates in the left and right oviducts in the same animal and between groups of animals in similar states. The coefficient of variation (3) of the measured distance from the fimbrial end of the tube at a given time after ovulation in the rabbit is on the order of 30% [17,22], This relative ly small variability suggests a well-defined system rather than a collection of random events. The position-time curve, however, does not reflect oscillatory motion and is therefore a smoothed out average representation even if all ova were to travel identically.…”

Synthetic microspheres transferred to the rat oviduct on Day 1 of pregnancy mimic the transport of native ova

“…Following the original work of Harper et al (1960) the transfer of microspheres to the oviduct for studying their transport to the uterus as surrogate ova has been accomplished mostly in the rabbit. Pauerstein et al (1975) showed that surgical transfer changes the transport of native eggs.…”

Directional Flow of Fallopian Tube Secretion in the Romney Ewe

“…A variety of methods has been used to observe movements of the Fallopian tube and their effect on sperm and ovum transport, for example, direct ob¬ servation of the tubes (Westman, 1926), utero-tubal insufflation (Bonnet, 1964), passage of radiopaque materials (Bjork, 1959) and the passage of natural ova (Wintenberger, 1953;Greenwald, 1961) and artificial ova (Harper, Bennett, Boursnell & Rowson, 1960).…”