Spermatozoa in the Genital Tract of the Ewe I. Rapidity of Transport

Abstract

Spermatozoan transport in the genital tract of the ewe was investigated. Tl'Rctable animals that were thoroughly conditioned to laboratory management and experimental procedures were used in these experiments.In oestrous ewes, spermatozoa were present in the fallopian tubes in 5 of 7 animals within 8 min after coitus, and inert particles (dead spermatozoa and carbon particles) passed to the fallopian tubes in 3 of 6 animals within 15 min after deposition in the anterior vagina.In untreated ovariectomized ewes killed 3t-4 hr after coitus, spermatozoa were found in the cervix, uterus, and fallopian tubes. The number of spermatozoa recovered from the fallopian tubes (though not from the cervLx or the uterus) was lower than in similar ewes in which oestrus had been induced by hormone treatment, but in these ewes the type of treatment and the hormone dosage did not influence materially the number or distribution of spermatozoa within the genital tract.In the ovariectomized ewes, some of the fallopian tubes were occluded at the cranial end and were distended with fluid. The occluded tubes contained significantly greater numbers of spermatozoa than did patent tubes.The mechanism of sperm transport in the female genital tract is discussed.

Spermatozoa in the Genital Tract of the Ewe III. The Role of Spermatozoan Motility and of Uterine Contractions in Transport

“…Ewes were killed and spermatozoa were recovered from the genital tracts, and the numbers estimated, by the methods described by Mattner and Braden (1963) except that warm buffer solution was used, in place of saline, to flush the genital tracts.…”

“…During this phase of transport, spermatozoan motility probably contributes little toward the passage of spermatozoa through the genital tract of the ewe since inert particles were found in the fallopian tubes of some ewes within 15 min after suspensions of such particles were deposited in the anterior vagina (Mattner and Braden 1963). However, the response of the uterus to the stimulation of mating or manipulation of the cervix is only transient and uterine activity returns to the prestimulation level within a few minutes (Van Demark and Hays 1952).…”

Sperm transport into the oviducts of heifers mated early in oestrus

“…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.…”

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

“…In this manner, preliminary conclusions have been drawn as to how soon after mating a population of spermatozoa competent to ensure fertilisation might have entered the oviducts. This general approach has been used previously in a small number of sheep (Dauzier, 1958) (see Schott and Phillips, 1941 ;Starke, 1949 ;Mattner, 1963 ;Mattner and Braden, 1963) (Overstreet and Cooper, 1978). In a recent review of the subject (Hunter, 1980 0 ) (Harper, 1973 ;Cooper, 1975, 1978 …”