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OBSERVATIONS ON THE FLUORESCENCE, BIREFRINGENCE AND HISTOCHEMISTRY OF THE RAT OVARY DURING THE REPRODUCTIVE CYCLE¹

the Department of Anatomy, Harvard Medical School BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

Abstract

THE rapid changes which occur during the reproductive cycle make the ovary an ideal subject for investigations designed to correlate structure and function. During the four-day period of this cycle in the rat, graafian follicles grow to maturity, rupture, and in the subsequent cycle become reorganized into mature corpora lutea which later degenerate. The histological features and physiological concomitants of these ovarian events are well known for the rat (Long and Evans, 1922; Allen, Hisaw and Gardner, 1939; Boling, Blandau, Soderwall and Young, 1941), and an impressive amount of circumstantial evidence relates these events to the biochemical aspects of steroid hormone metabolism (cf. Allen, Hisaw and Gardner, 1939; Doisy, 1939, 1943). Thus a substantial background of information exists which may be used as a cross-check on the results of any new procedure.

Footnotes

¹ This investigation was supported by grants from the Committee for Research in Problems of Sex, and the Committee on Research in Endocrinology, National Research Council.

² National Research Council Fellow, 1942-43. Department of Anatomy, Stanford University, California.

Received September 13, 1943.