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Apical and narrow cells of the initial segment and intermediate zone of the adult rat epididymis were glutaraldehyde fixed and Epon embedded for routine light (LM) and electron (EM) microscopic analysis and Bouin fixed and paraffin embedded for LM immunocytochemical analysis in order to examine their structural features, distribution, and functions. The goblet‐shaped apical cells comprised 10.7 ± 1.0% of the total epithelial population in the proximal initial segment but only 1.3 ± 0.5% in the intermediate zone. In the EM, these cells presented numerous mitochondria, few C‐shaped vesicles, and a pale round or oblong nucleus located in the upper half of their cytoplasm. The slender elongated narrow cells increased from 2.8 ± 0.3% in the proximal initial segment to 6.3 ± 0.4% in the intermediate zone. In an EM analysis, these cells presented numerous C‐shaped vesicles and mitochondria and a small flattened …