The ductuli efferentes of the goat: a morphological study

The morphology of the ductuli efferentes of the goat was compared with that of other animal species, especially with that of the bull. Both in the goat and in the bull, it forms a slightly brownish, bulbous mass of highly convoluted ductules (18-19 in the goat, 13-16 in the bull) that occupies approximately one third of the first limb of the caput epididymidis. The epithelium consists of two major cell types, ciliated and nonciliated, and a few intraepithelial lymphocytes and macrophages. The nonciliated cells can be further divided into three types: type II cells are characterized by specific granules that are dense, mostly homogeneous, eosinophilic, osmiophilic, and positive to periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining; type III cells are characterized by specific vacuoles that appear empty and do not stain with PAS, eosin, or osmium; type I cells lack both granules and vacuoles. These morphological, histochemical, and tinctorial differences observed among nonciliated cell types suggest that they are probably independent cell types rather than functional stages of one cell type. All three cell types are endowed with absorptive features such as microvilli, pinocytotic vesicles, and subapical vacuoles, but a higher differentiation of these features in type III cells suggests their greater role in the absorption of testicular fluid. Whether granules of type II cells and vacuoles of type III cells are absorptive and/or secretory remains unresolved from the available data. However, some circumstantial evidence, as presented in the discussion, supports the latter possibility.