Vascular anatomy of the uterus and ovaries and the unilateral luteolytic effect of the uterus: guinea pigs, rats, hamsters, and rabbits
Del Campo, C.H.; Ginther, O.J.
American Journal of Veterinary Research 33(12): 2561-2578
1972
ISSN/ISBN: 0002-9645 PMID: 4641214 Document Number: 44643
The anatomy of uterine and ovarian arteries and veins differed in several ways between species (guinea-pig, rat, hamster) in which a direct, unilateral, uteroluteal pathway has been demonstrated and species (rabbit) in which the uterus exerts a luteolytic effect without apparent involvement of a unilateral pathway. The uterine artery apparently provided a major portion of the ovarian blood in the guinea-pig, rat and hamster but only a minor portion in the rabbit. Much of the uterine venous blood drained cranially into a common trunk, which drained both uterus and ovaries in the guinea-pig, rat and hamster. However, in the rabbit, most of the uterine blood drained caudally. In the species with a unilateral pathway, the uterus and ovaries shared common arteries and veins, whereas in the species in which a unilateral pathway has not been demonstrated, the uterine vasculature was anatomically more independent of the ovarian vasculature. Hence blood vessels probably serve as the functional unilateral pathway for the luteolytic effect of the uterus on the ovaries.