The development and vascularisation of the corpus luteum in the mouse and rabbit

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Abstract
A description is given of the development of the corpus luteum in the mouse and the rabbit, up till the time when the lutein cells, formed by the enlargement of the follicular epithelium, have reached their full size. The theca interna gives rise to the vascular connective tissue of the corpus luteum; at its maximum state of development it includes numerous fat-containing cells, some of a fibroblastic type, and others with large oval vesicular nuclei. These cells do not become detached from the sheath but divide mitotically shortly after ovulation and give rise to fibroblastic cells containing fine cytoplasmic fat granules, which penetrate inwards, and constitute both the walls of the blood spaces and the supporting tissue of the corpus luteum. The repeated division of these cells produces a network of endothelial cells, with small darkly-staining nuclei, whose fibers ramifying among the lutein cells constitute the corpus luteum reticulum. During the vascularisation the large cells of the theca interna gradually disappear, leaving no evidence of wholesale degeneration; 36 hours after ovulation little or no trace of the theca interna persists. The theca externa takes part in the vascularisation and forms the sheath of the full grown corpus luteum, but the more active growth comes from the theca interna. It is suggested that the cells of the latter show affinities to the histiocytes of connective tissue. The conditions in the developing corpus luteum of the mouse and rabbit are contrasted with those described by other writers in man and larger mammals, where the theca interna cells are more abundant in proportion to the lutein elements.

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