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Journal of Electron Microscopy Advance Access published online on July 8, 2005
Journal of Electron Microscopy, doi:10.1093/jmicro/dfh106
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Microscopy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Received June 18, 2004
Accepted December 23, 2004

Full-length paper

Ultrastructure of the human periovulatory cervical mucus

Francisco Ceric 1, Doris Silva 2, and Pilar Vigil 3*

1 Unidad de Reproducción y Desarrollo, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile; Escuela de Psicología, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago, Chile
2 Unidad de Reproducción y Desarrollo, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile
3 Unidad de Reproducción y Desarrollo, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile; Fundación Médica San Cristóbal, Santiago, Chile

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Pilar Vigil, E-mail: pvigil{at}genes.bio.puc.cl


  Abstract

Two main types of cervical mucus have been described during the menstrual cycle: oestrogenic and progestative. Each category shows diverse morphological and functional features from the reproductive point of view. Traditionally, this change has been approached by analysing morphological patterns. In fact, a mesh model has been described for cervical mucus, structurally composed of fibrillar subunits with a parallel orientation, together with another model in a characteristic network shape with canalicular units, but the real model is not clear. The objective of our work was to study the different morphological structures of the mucus, as related to the day of follicular rupture (considered as day 0) determined by ultrasound. Cervical mucus samples were obtained from the cervical canal with an ASPIRETTETM from day -4 to day +1 of the menstrual cycle. Samples were fixed and dried by critical point. The ultrastructure was examined with scanning electron microscopy. The presence of three types of oestrogenic and one type of progestative cervical mucus was confirmed in this period. Our paper shows different types of ultrastructure in the oestrogenic mucus in relation to ovulation, which would help to understand the interaction between male gametes and cervical mucus in migration through the female genital tract.

Keywords: cervical mucus; ultrastructure; oestrogenic; progestative; network; mesh.
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