Female Reproductive System Histology Flashcards
What are the external organs of the female reproductive system?
AKA external genitalia; mons pubis, labia majora, labia minora, clitoris, external urethral orifice, and the vaginal orifice
What are the internal organs of the female reproductive system?
Vagina, uterus, uterine tubes, ovaries, and the ligaments and supporting structures
What are the endocrine productions from the ovaries?
Estrogens and progesterones; steroidogenesis
Estrogens promote what?
Growth and maturation of internal and external sex organs, development of secondary female sex characteristics, and promote breast development
Progesterones do what?
Prepare internal sex organs (primarily uterus) for pregnancy by promoting changes in endometrium; prepare mammary glands for lactation
What is the exocrine secretion of the ovary?
A secondary oocyte
Primordial germ cells differentiate in a female to form what?
oogonia
Oogonia arrest in prophase 1 and are then called what?
Primary oocytes
What is atresia?
The slow degeneration of primary oocytes starting at the fifth month of fetal life throughout the life of a woman
How many oocytes are ovulated throughout a womans life?
350-400
Ovarian follicles are found within what?
The cortex of the ovaries
An ovarian follicle is composed of what?
An oocyte surrounded by one or more layers of epithelial cells
The size of an ovarian follicle indicates what?
Developmental state of the oocyte
What are the three basic types of ovarian follicles?
A.primordial follicles
B.growing follicles
C.Mature or graffian follicles
What are the divisions of the growing follicles?
A.primary follicles
1.early or unilaminar primary follicles
2.late or multilaminar primary follicles
B.secondary (antral) follicles
What is the theca folliculi?
(Follicular theca) is the sheath of connective tissue cells that develop from the stromal cells surrounding the developing follicle
Where are theca folliculi found?
Just external to the basal lamina
The theca folliculi differentiates into what two different parts?
- theca interna
2. theca externa
What does the theca interna do?
In response to LH these cells synthesize and secrete androgens (i.e. precursors of estrogen)
What are the two cells of the corpus luteum?
- granulosa lutein cells
2. theca lutein cells
What do the granulosa lutein cells produce?
Progesterone
What do the theca lutein cells produce?
Estrogens
Starting with the primordial follicle and ending with the corpus albicans describe follicular growth.
Primordial follicle, early primary follicle, late primary follicle, secondary follicle, mature graffian follicle, ruptured follicle (releasing oocyte), corpus hemoragicum, corpus luteum, and corpus albicans
Describe the walls of the uterine tubes?
AKA fallopian tubes or oviducts; the wall is folded mucosa with simple columnar epithelium, a thick muscularis (interwoven layers of smooth muscle), and serosa
What are the two types of cells in the uterine tubes?
Ciliated cells and secratory cells (aka peg cells)
Ciliated cells of the uterine tubes help with what?
Move oocyte towards uterus
Secretory cells (peg cells) do what for the uterine tube?
These cells bulge into the lumen and produce nutritive fluid covering the epithelium
What are the three layers of the uterus?
Perimetrium, myometrium and endometrium
Describe the perimetrium.
This is the outer most layer of the uterus, either adventitia or serosa
Describe the myometrium.
This is the middle and thickest layer of the uterus, bundles of smooth muscle separated by connective tissue containing many blood vessels; four poorly defined layers of smooth muscle
Describe the endometrium.
Inner layer of simple columnar epithelium, with both ciliated and secretory cells, with an underlying lamina propria, contains uterine glands
What are the two parts of the endometrium?
- basal layer (stratum basal)-deepest layer
- functional layer (stratum functional)- superficial layer; thickness changes influenced by the shifting levels of ovarian hormones and majority can be sloughed away monthly as the menstrual flow
What is the cervix?
The narrow end of the uterus
Is the epithelium of the cervix sloughed during menstruation?
No
What type of glands are the cervical glands of the uterus?
Large, branched mucosal glands
The cervix is a common site for what kind of changes?
Metaplastic
The wall of the vaginal canal has what three things?
mucosa, muscular layer, and adventitia
What does the mucosa of the vaginal canal consist of?
Nonkeratinized stratified squamous epithelium
What are the muscular layers of the vaginal canal?
Two indistinct smooth muscle layers; inner circular and outer longitudinal
What type of glands are mammary glands?
Modified tubuloalveolar apocrine sweat glands
The production and secretion of milk is done via what methods?
Merocrine and apocrine types, however because there is little or no cytoplasm in breast milk the merocrine method for secretion is up for debate.
