The sites of iodide concentration in the oviduct and the uterus of the rat.

Abstract

SUMMARY Previous studies have shown that under the influence of progesterone the concentrations of radioiodide in the uterus and oviduct of the rat are maintained at levels higher than that in the plasma. In the present experiments the uterus and oviducts from rats killed 2 h after the injection of Na125I were autoradiographed by a technique which permits the localization of diffusible radioactive material. In intact non-pregnant rats and ovariectomized rats not injected with progesterone, uniformly low grain densities were observed over sections of oviduct and uterus with the exception of the epithelium and lumen of the oviduct where some increase in grain density was observed. In intact and ovariectomized rats treated with progesterone and in rats killed on Day 3 or 4 of pregnancy, grain densities over the epithelium and lumen of the oviduct were very high but the fimbria of the oviduct were consistently unlabelled. The stroma underlying the oviduct epithelium was also labelled. In the uteri of these animals the principal site of concentration of radioiodide was the luminal epithelium, but for technical reasons it was not possible to exclude the stroma immediately adjacent to the luminal epithelium as a less active site of concentration of iodide. No other site in the uterus concentrated radioiodide. The luminal epithelium occupies less than 3% of the volume of the uterus in ovariectomized rats: if this tissue is taken as the sole site of iodide concentration in the uterus, the levels reached in these cells must be at least a hundred times that of the plasma when the overall uterus: plasma concentration ratio for radioiodide is 4 or more.