La Vitesse De Remontée Des Spermatozoïdes Dans Le Tractus Génital De La Brebis

Abstract

Jouy-en-Josas ( 1 )

Transport of spermatozoa in the ewe : timing of the establishment of a functional population in the oviduct

“…Although these reports were not in agreement with the results of Green and Winters (1935), Dauzier and Wintenberger (1952) and Dauzier (1958), nor could they be substantiated by the later studies of Thibault and WintenbergerTorres (1967), they do raise the important question as to whether the vanguard spermatozoa reaching the oviduct are those that participate in the actual process of fertilis q tion. In the pilot study described below, the technique of post-coital separation of the oviducts from the uterus has been used to isolate the cellular contents of the oviducts at various intervals after mating.…”

Sperm transport into the oviducts of heifers mated early in oestrus

“…Fur-thermore, insemination at an inappropriate time relative to ovulation is known to reduce fertility (Trimberger, 1948 ;Deas, 1970 ;MacMillan and Watson, 1975a, b ;Robbins et al, 1978 ;Foote, 1979), partly because the proportion of eggs fertilised is reduced, but also because those eggs fertilised after a postovulatory delay are more likely to die during embryonic development (Casida, 1950 (Hunter, 1984). Previous studies in this species have used counts of spermatozoa in flushings (VanDemark and Moeller, 19511, smears (Dauzier, 1958) and histological preparations (Thibault, G6rard and Heyman, 1973) (Dauzier, 1958 ;Thibault et al, 1973 which species no eggs were fertilised after ligation at 4 or 6 hr, but 30 % and 100 % were fertilised following section 8 and 10 hr after mating, respectively (Hunter, Nichol and Crabtree, 1980). These results suggests that in cattle the process of establishing the functional population in the oviduct had begun by 6 hr after mating, but was incomplete even a further 6 hr later.…”

“…It is possible that spermatozoa capable of fertilisation were present in the oviduct 6 hr after mating, but were lost subsequently into the peritoneal cavity. Nevertheless, serial histological studies suggest a negligible passage of spermatozoa into the ampulla early in oestrus (Dauzier, 1958) and sections of the tract (Thibault, 1973 ;Thibault et al, 1973) A phase of rapid transport has been described in two other species in which semen is deposited in the vagina during mating : the sheep (Mattner and Braden, 1963) and the rabbit (Overstreet and Cooper, 1978a). In both of these studies, great care was taken to prevent contamination of fluid from one region with spermatozoa from a different segment of the reproductive tract.…”

The Distribution of Ciliated Cells in the Cervix of the Ewe

“…The function of these ciliated cells remains to be elucidated, but the known physiology of the ovine cervix suggests some possible roles. For instance, it is known that the cervix is the main reservoir for spermatozoa (Quinlan, Mare, and Roux 1933;Dauzier and Wintenberger 1952;Mattner 1963) in the ewe, the spermatozoa residing in the luminal folds of the mucosa (Mattner 1966;Mattner and Braden 1969;Lightfoot and Resta1l1971). Mattner (1966) has postulated that the rheological properties of cervical mucus are responsible for the retention and slow progression of spermatozoa through the cervix.…”