Estradiol regulation of oviductin/oviduct-specific glycoprotein messenger ribonucleic acid expression in human oviduct mucosal cells in vitro

Objective: To determine whether oviduct mucosal cell culture with exogenous 17beta E-2 supports the continued production of oviductin, a putative embryotrophic protein. Design: Semiquantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analysis of oviductin mRNA expression after oviduct mucosal cell culture in the presence of 17beta E-2. Three different culture systems were studied to investigate the response to E-2. Setting: University-based obstetrics and gynecology department. Subjects: Oviduct tissue was obtained from 18 women undergoing laparoscopy for benign gynecologic conditions. Intervention(s): The mucosal layer was isolated from the oviduct tissue and exposed to three different culture systems, which contained various concentrations of 17 betaE(2), or vehicle-only control. Main Outcome Measure(s): The relationship between exposure to 17beta E-2 and expression of oviductin messenger (m)RNA by cultured oviduct mucosal cells. Result(s): There was a significant increase in oviductin mRNA expression after the addition of 17beta E-2 to the culture system in which the in vivo cell-to-cell and cell-to-basement-membrane contacts of the oviduct had been maintained. Conclusion(s): Estradiol failed to alter oviductin mRNA expression in oviduct mucosal cells cultured under conditions in which the ciliated mucosal cell phenotype plus the cell-to-cell and cell-to-basement-membrane contacts of the oviduct were lost. However, with a culture system that maintained the cell architecture, E-2 initiated and significantly increased oviductin mRNA expression. ((C) 2004 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.)