AJP - Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol 248, Issue 5 624-E632, Copyright © 1985 by American Physiological Society
Vascular perfusion: a novel means of studying oviduct function
H. J. Leese and S. M. Gray
An in situ preparation for the combined vascular and luminal perfusion of
the rabbit oviduct has been developed. Medium 199, gassed with 5% CO2 in O2
and supplemented with heparin, antibiotics, and 2.5% wt/vol dialyzed bovine
serum albumin was infused into the ovarian artery at a rate of 1 ml/min.
Krebs Ringer bicarbonate medium was recirculated through the lumen at a
rate of 50 microliter/min. The ovary was perfused together with the
oviduct, and the preparation is viable for up to 3 h. Equal concentrations
of pyruvate, lactate, glucose, and sucrose added to the vascular medium
were transported at different rates into the lumen, as was a physiological
mixture of amino acids. A proportion of the lactate entering the lumen was
synthesized within the oviduct from vascular glucose. When glucose and
pyruvate were omitted from the vascular medium, their appearance and that
of lactate in the lumen was barely detectable, suggesting that these
oviduct fluid components are mainly derived from the blood. The oviduct
maintained a steady transmural potential difference of 5.9 mV (lumen
negative). With vascular perfusion alone, oviduct fluid entered the oviduct
lumen at a rate of 16.8 microliter/h. In oviducts taken from rabbits 3 days
postovulation, there was a general decrease in the vascular to lumen flux
of all nutrients measured. Preliminary work has shown that the preparation
may be used to study ovulation, ovum pickup and transport, and
fertilization.
