An estradiol-responsive mouse endometrial cell strain with inducible aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase activity

Disruption of embryonic and fetal development due to preimplantation chemical insults: a critical review

Descriptive teratology has developed several fundamental precepts, two of which can now be challenged on the basis of experimental evidence. The first is that prior to implantation the developing embryo is not susceptible to survivable defects from chemical injury. The second is that developmental defects cannot be due to mutational events since rare events seem unlikely to explain alterations in large populations of cells. This review presents current experimental evidence demonstrating that the effects of chemical exposure on blastocyst stage embryos may be manifest long after the time of insult and that subtle nonlethal mutations may have a role in poor fetal performance after early chemical exposures.

A simple efficient method for separating murine uterine epithelial and mesenchymal cells

A simple, and very efficient, method for isolating pure uterine epithelium from neonatal, immature, or adult mice and pure uterine mesenchyme from neonatal mice is described. The technique uses mild tryptic digestion of the tissues to loosen the adherence of the epithelium to its underlying mesenchyme followed by gentle mechanical manipulation to effect removal of the luminal epithelium as an intact tube of cells. The epithelial fraction collected by this method was free of stromal cell contamination as judged by microscopic examination of the freshly isolated cells and of cell cultures made from that fraction. The mesenchymal fraction was consistently devoid of epithelium when collected from neonatal mice (5 days old or younger), but mesenchyme from uteri of mice greater than or equal to 10 days old was usually contaminated with epithelial cells due to retention of glandular epithelial crypts in the mesenchyme following removal of the luminal epithelium. Both epithelial and mesenchymal cells obtained by this method are viable, as judged by their ability to attach, spread, and synthesize DNA in vitro. Epithelial cells isolated from 20-day-old or adult animals have a full complement of estrogen receptors, as assessed by whole cell uptake of [3H]estradiol. The technique described here has clear advantages over previously described methods for obtaining pure uterine epithelium and in addition allows mesenchymal tissue free of epithelial contamination to be obtained when applied to uteri of animals less than or equal to 5 days old.

Pattern of steroid interaction with inducers of aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase activity in several cloned estradiol-responsive stromal cell strains from mouse endometrium

Several steroid responsive stromal cell strains were isolated from normal mouse endometrium. Both estrogen responsive and progesterone responsive strains were obtained. The estrogen responsive cells were also responsive to diethylstilbestrol (DES). The progesterone responsive strains were inhibited by estrone and estriol. One of the estrogen responsive cell strains, E041, was cloned in the presence and absence of 17-beta-estradiol (E2). Of 14 clones developed in the absence of E2 and screened for responsivity of growth, six were significantly responsive to E2. Six of 26 clones developed in the presence of E2 were responsive to E2. Microsomes isolated from these clones were shown to have aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) activity which was inducible with either benzanthracene (BA) or 2,3,7,8 tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). The basal levels of AHH activity were significantly reduced by E2 in E2 responsive clones. The TCDD induced levels of AHH activity in the E2 responsive and E2 non-responsive clones were significantly reduced by E2. The BA induced levels of AHH were significantly increased by E2 in one of the clones. These results show that mouse endometrial stroma consists of a number of populations of cells with different specific proliferative and metabolic responses to steroids.