Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate the mechanism of the retrograde transfer of ovarian steroid hormones from the ovarian lymphatic and venous effluent to the arterial blood supplying the ovary. In the first experiment, reproductive organs were collected from gilts in the luteal (
n
= 10) and follicular (
n
= 10) phase of the oestrous cycle. The ovary with the mesovarium was isolated and perfused through the ovarian artery with warmed, oxygenated autologous blood. The concentrations of progesterone and oestradiol in ovarian arterial blood increased on passing through the ovarian artery to the ovary, in the luteal phase, from 20.3 ± 2.1 to 31.4 ± 3.9 ng ml
−1
(
P
−1
(
P
−1
(
P
−1
(
P
P
P
n
= 10; follicular phase,
n
= 5), the concentration of progesterone and oestradiol increased in both ovarian arterial blood (
P
P
< 0.0001) after administration of the steroids into the lymphatic vessels of the isolated mesovarium with separated ovary. In the third experiment (follicular phase, n = 5), with the mesovarium isolated after the ovary was removed and ovarian venous blood flowing out under the force of gravity (without the blood pressure in the ovarian vein), it was demonstrated that the veno‐venous network covering the branches of the ovarian artery was supplied with the blood flowing out from the mesovarian tissue and that the filling of the veno‐venous network was dependent on the blood pressure in the ovarian artery. We conclude that the effective retrograde transfer of steroid hormones from ovarian venous and lymphatic effluent to the ovary is accomplished not only by the classical counter‐current exchange mechanism, but also as a result of complex processes that may be dependent on a specific part of the circulation of the blood and lymph in the periovarian vascular complex of the mesovarium.