COMPLEJO PROSTáTICO EN EL CONEJO (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

glands attached to the reproducing system of mammals present variations in relation to heir location, number, size and shape. a prostate gland in animals is impair in dogs and horses; its size is similar to a chestnut, in other animals it is diffuse and extended along the urethra. in a man, it is the annex gland of highest size and in a rabbit a prostate complex is observed , formed by the proprostate, prostate and paraprostate glands.our objective was to describe the morphology of the rabbit's prostate complex by means of mesoscopic, histological and histochemical studies and, in this way, set the basis for future stereological and morphofunctional studies. we used 5 rabbits (oryctolagus cuniculus), which were adult, hybrid, of no defined race, bred and kept in captivity, fed with pellets and carrots ad libitum and obtained from the bioterio ot the faculty of medicine of the universidad de la frontera, chile. after the rabbits were slaughtered, the attached glands to the reproducing system were dissected with the help of a ransor magnifying glass (10x) isolating the prostate complex. later, the samples were fixed in bouin for 24 hours and processed for their inclusion in paraplast. serial cuts of 5 μm thick were performed and later stained for their histological and histochemical study. the anatomical and mesoscopic results of the prostate complex showed that the proprostate was located caudal to the vesicular gland and cranial to the prostate and this one craneal to the bulbourethral gland. both were related in their lower portion with the urethra (middle portion) and the deferent ducts (lateral side). in lower and lateral position to the proprostate the paraprostates were located. the three glands presented collecting ducts that flow separately into the urethra. histologically, they were made up of glandular acinus and stromal tissue formed by lisas muscular cells and connective tissue. the epithelium is typical for each gland, observing spherical calculus in the