Wolffian duct

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Wolffian duct

Urogenital sinus of female human embryo of eight and a half to nine weeks old.

Transverse section of a chick embryo of forty-five hours’ incubation.
Latin	d. mesonephricus, d. Wolffi
Gray's	subject #252 1205
Carnegie stage	11
Precursor	intermediate mesoderm
Gives rise to	ureteric bud
Dorlands/Elsevier	d_29/12314957

The Wolffian duct (also known as archinephric duct, Leydig's duct, mesonephric duct, or nephric duct) is a paired organ found in mammals including humans during embryogenesis.

It connects the primitive kidney Wolffian body (or mesonephros) to the cloaca and serves as the anlage for certain male reproductive organs.

1 Male anatomy
2 Female anatomy
3 History
4 Additional images
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Male anatomy

In a male, it develops into a system of connected organs between the testis and the prostate, namely the rete testis, the efferent ducts, the epididymis, the vas deferens, the seminal vesicle, and the prostate.

For this it is critical that the ducts are exposed to testosterone during embryogenesis.

In the mature male, the function of this system is to store and mature sperm, and provide accessory semen fluid.

[edit] Female anatomy

In the female, in the absence of testosterone support, the Wolffian ducts do not develop and wither.

As a residual the epoophoron and Skene's glands may be present. Also, lateral to the wall of the vagina a Gartner's duct or cyst could develop as a remnant.

[edit] History

It is named after Caspar Friedrich Wolff who described the mesonephros and its ducts in his dissertation in 1759.^[1]

[edit] Additional images

Diagram of a transverse section, showing the mode of formation of the amnion in the chick.	Reconstruction of a human embryo of 17 mm.	Section of the urogenital fold of a chick embryo of the fourth day.	Broad ligament of adult, showing epoöphoron.
Transverse section of human embryo eight and a half to nine weeks old.	Tail end of human embryo twenty-five to twenty-nine days old.	Tail end of human embryo thirty-two to thirty-three days old.	Tail end of human embryo; from eight and a half to nine weeks old.
Primitive kidney and bladder, from a reconstruction.