Abstract
It was demonstrated that neither the change of TTC penetration through the vaginal epithelium nor the metabolic changes of whole vaginal tissue participated in the estrogen-stimulation of vaginal TTC reduction, and that the vaginal TTC reduction in vivo was not a reaction occurred in the whole vaginal epithelium bu a reaction localized in the superficial cells affected by estrogen administration, suggesting that the vaginal TTC reduction in vivo increased by estrogen reflects some biochemical changes in superficial cells. It was further demonstrated that the vaginal TTC reduction was histochemically localized in the superficial cells only when the reaction occurred in the vagina having intact blood circulation, whereas it was spread over the whole epithelium including basal cells when the mice were killed and the reaction occurred in the vagina without blood supply. Furthermore, a close correlation was obtained between the TTC reduction and the development of stratum granulosum in the vagina.
It is concluded, therefore, that the estrogen-stimulated TTC reduction in vagina is an earlier transient phenomenon in the process of vaginal cornification, in which the superficial cells are brought into the anaerobic condition resulting from the rapid differentiation of epithelium.
