Tubal surgery in the rabbit: Fertilization and polyspermy after resection of the isthmus

✍ Scribed by Hunter, R. H. F. ;Léglise, P. C.

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1971
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 659 KB
• Volume: 132
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0002-9106
• DOI: 10.1002/aja.1001320106

✦ Synopsis

Transport and capacitation of spermatozoa, and the normality of the process of fertilization, were examined after unilateral resection of the isthmus and end-to-end anastomosis of the remaining portions of the Fallopian tube. The operation was performed in eighteen rabbits, in each of which the contralateral tube remained intact to serve as a control.

Recent ovulations were present in fourteen animals at autopsy, although in only eleven were ovulations detectable on the side of the anastomosis. Thirteen animals yielded a total of 89 eggs, the proportion recovered from the control tube (79.3% ) being significantly higher than that from the anastomosed tube (57.2% >. Six of nine anastomosed tubes yielding eggs were patent to sperm passage, and 67% of the eggs recovered from this side were fertilized compared with 91% from the control tubes. Three eggs recovered from the anastomosed tube of three animals were dispermic. It is concluded that normal fertilization and early cleavage of rabbit eggs can take place in the absence of the isthmus, and that the rate of cleavage is not retarded under such conditions. An increased number of spermatozoa on the eggs from the anastomosed tube, together with the incidence of dispermic eggs, indicates that the isthmus exerts considerable control over sperm transport to the site of fertilization.