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Biology of Reproduction, Vol 25, 1135-1147, Copyright © 1981 by Society for the Study of Reproduction
1 Department of Anatomy, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
and Department of Biochemistry,
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine,
Nashville, Tennessee 37232 In the male guinea pig the ducts of the seminal vesicles, the vasa deferentia and the uterus
masculinus (vagina masculina) open into a discrete posterior subcompartment of the proximal
urethra, termed a common ejaculatory chamber. The latter, in turn, opens into the urethra by a
common midline orifice. The 12-14 ducts of the prostate and coagulating glands do not open into
the common ejaculatory chamber, but open separately on either side into the proximal urethra
lateral to the midline orifice of the common ejaculatory chamber. The epithelium of the common ejaculatory chamber and the distal 0.5 cm of the ducts of the
seminal vesicles and of the vasa deferentia, as well as the uterus masculinus throughout all its
length, except for the bifid tips, is stratified. Since this epithelium resembles that lining the urogenital sinus of the fetus and is derived from it, we have termed it a "sinus epithelium." It is
abruptly continuous with the transitional epithelium of the proximal urethra at the lips of the
common midline orifice of the ejaculatory chamber. The "sinus epithelium," as well as the transitional epithelium of the proximal urethra, shows thickening, increased stratification, and many
areas of superficial mucification and mucous crypt formation in the neonatal animal. The sinus
epithelium is atrophic in the sexually immature animal, and again is hyperplastic and mucified in
the mature animal. The prostate and coagulating glands consist of 6-7 major lobes loosely bound together by
connective tissue, and the ducts opening into the urethra are equal in number to that of the major
lobes. Each lobe may be further subdivided by dissection into many lobules, cylindrical in form,
these being wider and more blunt in the coagulating gland. The even distribution of the lobes
around the common ejaculatory chamber and urethra does not justify their subdivision into
discrete dorsal and ventral or lateral entities as conventionally described.
Accepted on August 25, 1981
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