Abstract
Summary
The primordial rete of the chick embryo is a product of the gonadal blastema. It differentiates coincidentally with the primary sex cords with which it is continuous from the beginning. The rete testis is elaborated into a well vascularized network which invades the anterior portion of the mesonephros. There the rete tissues invest and ultimately fuse with the capsules of renal corpuscles. Cavitation of the rete testis begins within the first 3 days after hatching and is well advanced by the end of the 3rd week, when lumina appear in the sex cords. The rete ovarii in general parallels the development of the rete testis. However, its bulk is always less and shows only incipient cavitation. As a result of breakdown of the medullary cords accompanied by a disintegration of the connection between rete and renal capsules, the rete ovarii ends up as a rudiment isolated in the mesovarium. In embryos where a complete block of one mesonephros is effected experimentally, rete cords make their appearance associated and continuous with the sex cords of a normally differentiating gonad. In these cases, rete differentiation is independent of mesonephric differentiation. Embryos with the mesonephros only partially blocked on one side give evidence less critical but favorable to the view of gonadal origin of the rete.
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