Development of the Human Female Reproductive Tract ⁎ Gerald R
Differentiation xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Differentiation journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/diff Review article Development of the human female reproductive tract ⁎ Gerald R. Cunhaa, , Stanley J. Robboyb, Takeshi Kuritac, Dylan Isaacsona, Joel Shena, Mei Caoa, Laurence S. Baskina a Department of Urology, University of California, 400 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA b Department of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, DUMC 3712, Durham, NC 27710, USA c Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, College of Medicine, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ohio State University, 812 Biomedical Research Tower, 460 W. 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Development of the human female reproductive tract is reviewed from the ambisexual stage to advanced de- Human Müllerian duct velopment of the uterine tube, uterine corpus, uterine cervix and vagina at 22 weeks. Historically this topic has Wolffian duct been under-represented in the literature, and for the most part is based upon hematoxylin and eosin stained Urogenital sinus sections. Recent immunohistochemical studies for PAX2 (reactive with Müllerian epithelium) and FOXA1 (re- Uterovaginal canal active with urogenital sinus epithelium and its known pelvic derivatives) shed light on an age-old debate on the Uterus derivation of vaginal epithelium supporting the idea that human vaginal epithelium derives solely from ur- Cervix Vagina ogenital sinus epithelium. Aside for the vagina, most of the female reproductive tract is derived from the Müllerian ducts, which fuse in the midline to form the uterovaginal canal, the precursor of uterine corpus and uterine cervix an important player in vaginal development as well.
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