Studies of the rat reproductive tract are often used to determine the extent that various substances, environmental hazards, or medical conditions may affect the human reproductive tract. For example, one research group recently investigated the effect of experimental diabetes on neurotransmission in rat vaginal smooth muscle. Their findings indicated that diabetes disturbs adrenergic-, cholinergic- and NANC-neurotransmitter mechanisms. Another example of a study of the reproductive tract of the rat is an investigation carried out in 2000, in which researchers examined the impact of low-level gestational exposures to a powerful form of dioxin on the development of the fetal rat vagina. This group found that defects were observable within four days of dioxin ingestion by the mother rat.

The cytoskeletal F-actin network was targeted in a sample of rat vagina tissue (presented above) with phalloidin conjugated to Alexa Fluor 568. Phalloidin is a member of the phallotoxin group of bicyclic peptides isolated from the toxic Amanita phalloides mushroom. The tissue section was also labeled for nuclear DNA with Hoechst 33342 and the Golgi complex with Oregon Green 488 conjugated to wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). Images were recorded in grayscale with a 12-bit digital camera coupled to a Nikon Eclipse 80i microscope equipped with bandpass emission fluorescence filter optical blocks. During the processing stage, individual image channels were pseudocolored with RGB values corresponding to each of the fluorophore emission spectral profiles.