ESTUDIOS HISTOLóGICO E HISTOQUíMICO DEL EPIDíDIMO DE CONEJO (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

in the epididymis, sperms acquire fertilizing capacity and motility, which is related to glycoproteins probably secreted in its epithelium. the aim of this report was describe the morphology of the epididymis of rabbit and to study its histological and histochemical characteristics. we use six rabbits (oryctolacus cuniculus) hybrids, males and sexually matures, obtained from the faculty of medicine biotherium of the universidad de la frontera, temuco, chile. the histological slides were stained with the following stainings: h-e, pas, pas-diastasa, alcian blue, masson′s tricromic, van gieson, verhoeff stain to elastics fibers and gomori reticuline. the epididymis of rabbit is a large duct crowd together, which present three regions: head, body and tail, divided by septum epididymidis the shape of the ducts were found to go from regular and isodiametric in the head, to irregular and anisodiametric in the tail. it was observed the stratum fibromuscular with high vascularization, and smooth muscle cells surrounding the ducts, added to a thin reticular fibers net. the epithelium was a pseudostratificatum columnar epithelium, apparently lower in the tail, and formed of principals, basal, and cromophobic cytoplasm cells, which were occasionally observed. the apical zone of principal cells as the basal lamina of the epithelium present pas positive reaction, which was more intense in the tail. with this preliminary report we pretend to establish morphological bases to further stereological studies.