STIMULATION BY INTRA-UTERINE DEVICES OF

MOTILITY OF SHEEP MYOMETRIUM

T. H. BRINSFIELD and H. W. HAWK
United States Department of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry Research Division,
Beltsville, Maryland, U.S.A.
(Received 27th November 1967)
Summary. Motility in vitro was greatest in strips of myometrium from
oestrous ewes, intermediate in strips from ovariectomized ewes and
least in strips from luteal phase ewes. The presence of a spiral in the
uterine lumen in vivo increased the amplitude of contractions for ewes
of each endocrine state; the increase was greatest for ovariectomized
ewes. Frequency of contractions was not changed significantly. The
increased amplitude was localized for the most part to the uterine horn
containing the spiral.
A plastic spiral placed in one uterine horn of theewe inhibits ovum fertilization,

apparently by inhibiting transport spermatozoa (Hawk, 1967). Four to

of
24 hr after natural mating, spermatozoa were almost completely absent from
both oviducts of ewes with a spiral in one uterine horn, while hundreds or
thousands of spermatozoa were flushed from oviducts of control ewes. Since
the spiral might inhibit sperm transport by suppressing uterine motility, this
investigation was conducted to determine the effects of a spiral in one uterine
horn on the motility of myometrium from oestrous ewes. Myometrium from
ovariectomized and luteal phase ewes was also studied.
The animals were virgin ewes, approximately 1J years of age. A plastic
spiral (IUD) 8 mm in diameter and 32 mm in length, was inserted by surgery
into the centre of one uterine horn of each of eighteen ewes during the last
half of an oestrous cycle. During the operation, both ovaries were removed
from six of these ewes. Eighteen other ewes served as controls, six of which
were also ovariectomized. The sheep were used experimentally 3 to 5 weeks
following ovariectomy or insertion of the spirals. Of the twelve 'IUD' ewes and
twelve control ewes with intact ovaries, six of each group were killed during
oestrus and six were killed 11 days after oestrus, during the luteal phase of the
oestrous cycle.
Immediately after slaughter, the uterus was removed and 5 25 mm longi
tudinal strips were excised from the anti-mesometrial wall of the portion of
uterine horn in contact with the spiral and from a corresponding area of the
opposite horn. Strips were excised from both uterine horns of control ewes.
The endometrium was removed and one end of each strip of myometrium was
tied in a fixed position in a 50-ml chamber in a dual chamber tissue-organ bath.
The other end was tied to an isotonic front end writing lever which recorded
129
130 Brinsfield and H. W. Hawk
T. H.
muscle activity on a kymograph drum rotating at 2 cm/min. By employing a
dual chamber bath, motility of myometrial strips from the spiral and non-
spiral horn was recorded simultaneously. The muscle strips were oxygenated
continuously by a mixture of 95% 02 and 5% C02 bubbling through the
Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate solution. Temperatures were maintained at 38-5 C.
Myometrial motility was recorded for 50 min, with tracings of the final 20
minbeing used for comparison purposes.
Control oestrus IUD oestrus
Non-spiral horn Spiral horn

.'^''^^ ^ ^/
Control ovariectomized IUD ovariectomized
Non-spiral horn Spiral horn

Text-fig. 1. Motility of sheep myometrium in vitro. Time marked at 1-min intervals.

Scale : 1 mm = 2 mm on original tracings.

The writing arm amplified muscle movement 15 times; each 1 mm vertical

movement of the pen was considered to be a myometrial contraction. For each
muscle sample, the height in millimetres of individual contractions over the
20-min tracing was used to calculate a mean amplitude. The tracings presented
(Text-fig. 1) are those of individual muscle samples with amplitude and
frequency of contractions nearest to the mean for the group.
In control sheep, as expected from previous work (Brinsfield, 1968), the
amplitude of myometrial contractions was greatest for oestrous ewes, inter
mediate for ovariectomized ewes and lowest for luteal phase ewes (Table 1
and Text-fig. 1). Heterogeneity of variances (P<0-01) precluded statistical
comparisons among endocrine groups. For luteal phase and ovariectomized
IUD ewes, the mean amplitude of contractions for non-spiral horns was
similar to that for the respective control ewes; for oestrous IUD ewes, the mean
amplitude for non-spiral horns was somewhat higher than that for controls,
but not significantly so. Within each endocrine state, the mean amplitude for
spiral horns was higher than that for non-spiral horns or for horns of control
 of myometrial activity
Stimulation 131
ewes. However, the differences were statistically significant only for ovariecto
mized ewes ( >001 between spiral and non-spiral horns and between spiral
horns and horns of control ewes). In oestrous and luteal phase sheep, the
variability among ewes was too great for mean differences to be statistically
significant. Myometrium from two of the six spiral horns of oestrous ewes had
'sphincter-like' contractions similar to those described by Marcus, Marcus
& Wilson (1966) for IUD-bearing uterine horns of rats.
Table 1
effect of intra-uterine devices on motility OF
SHEEP MYOMETRIUM n Vitro

Factor
Experimental groups
Amplitude Frequency
(height in mm) (contractionsmin)
Control oestrus 21-29 3-71
IUD oestrus
Non-spiral horn 30-43 2-85
Spiral horn 35-04 2-82
Control luteal 1-36 1-07
IUD luteal
Non-spiral horn 1-83 2 03
Spiral horn 4-62 2-67
Control ovariectomized 904 1-67
IUD ovariectomized
Non-spiral horn 8-46 1-82
Spiral horn 23-12 1-98

Frequency of contractions (contractions/min, Table 1 ) did not differ signi

ficantly among experimental groups. Frequency was slightly decreased in IUD
oestrous ewes, probably due to the increased height of individual contractions,
and was slightly increased in IUD luteal phase and ovariectomized ewes.
Since intra-uterine devices did not suppress the activity of myometrial
strips in vitro, the results failed to suggest that IUD inhibit sperm transport in
oestrous ewes by suppressing uterine motility. However, the possibility has
not been ruled out that IUD inhibit sperm transport by affecting uterine
motility in ways that would not be detected by the methods used in this study.
The authors wish to acknowledge the technical assistance of D. K. Higgin-
botham.
This study was supported in part by a reimbursable agreement with the
National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, National
Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

REFERENCES
Brinsfield, . H. (1968) Relationship of endocrine state to spontaneous motility of sheep myometrium
in vitro. J. Anim. Sci. (In press).
Hawk, H. W. (1967) Investigations on the anti-fertility effect of intrauterine devices in the ewe.

J. Reprod. Fert. 14, 49.

Marcus, L., Marcus, C. C. & Wilson, K. H. (1966) Effect of an intrauterine contraceptive device on
uterine motility in the rat. Obstet. Gynec, N.T. 27, 238.