The Reaction of Uterine Endometrium on Spermatozoa and Eggs

Abstract

One of our contemporary authorities on the physiology of the uterus, Reynolds (1949), quoted an English physician, Tyler Smith, who wrote in the Lancet of 1848 that the uterus ‘supports the race in the same way that the stomach and heart support the individual’. As the uterus is the obvious organ to reproduce young or to develop embryos, the historical and cultural aspects of the uterus can be traced back to very ancient times and to the very primitive tribes (Plaut, 1959). Its biological importance and its physiological function have been dealt with by Marshall in the second edition of The Physiology of Reproduction (1922), and in the third edition by Parkes (1952, 1956 and 1960), also by Alan, Danforth and Doisy in the second edition of Sex and Internal Secretions (1939) and the third edition by Young (1961). One important function of the uterus has been rather neglected, however, that it also supports spermatozoa for a certain length of time. This function is perhaps just as important as that it ‘supports the race’ for generations or supports the embryos for several months. I shall deal with the reaction of the uterus on spermatozoa and on early eggs by reporting some of my own observations and the contributions of other learned colleagues in the field of animal reproduction.