Transport Through the Rabbit Oviduct

¹ From the Animal Husbandry Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Longitudinal contractions of the rabbit oviduct do not change in amplitude or rate at different intervals after mating to 4 days, but they become greater in pregnancy and less in pseudopregnancy. Oil and India ink are spread in both directions by segmentation and pendular movement of the smooth muscle but they are arrested at 2–3 cm anterior to the tubo-uterine junction unless more than 0.1 ml is used. Paralysis of the muscle with nicotine prevents movement. When a plastic tube is inserted through the tubo-uterine junction, passage of ova past the critical zone is hastened. Ligature of the infundibular end of the oviduct causes distension, so that oviduct secretions must normally pass through the infundibulum and not into the uterus. This probably aids the transport of spermatazoa while ova are kept from escaping in this direction by the cilia and by the mucosal folds.