Establishment of a ciliated epithelial cell line from human Fallopian tube

Human tubal epithelial cells in primary culture were transfected with simia n virus 40 (SV40) large T antigen plasmid, and an immortalized ciliated cel l line, named as NT/T-S, was established without crisis. Transmission elect ron microscopy proved that NT/T-S cells had cilia, microvilli, junctional c omplexes, rough endoplasmic reticula, free ribosomes and microtubules. NT/T -S cells were evaluated preliminarily on the basis of co-culture study usin g surplus embryos at the 4- to 8-cell stage in our IVF and embryo transfer programme, All of the 133 embryos had greater than or equal to 10% fragment s (based on the surface area) and were unworthy of cryopreservation. Up to 57% (16/28) of the embryos with 10-30% fragments reached the blastocyst sta ge by co-culture, In contrast, blastocyst formation was observed in <10% of the control embryos, some of which were co-cultured with NFL/T cells (the immortalized human fetal liver epithelial cells) (1/16), and the others wer e incubated with the co-culture medium alone (1/18). Various cytokines/grow th factors such as leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF), interleukin (IL)-6, I L-8 and basic fibroblast growth factor were secreted by NT/T-S cells as wel l as by the tubal epithelial cells in primary culture. The establishment of a ciliated cell line will provide a valuable resource for the further stud ies of the Fallopian tube in the early events of pregnancy.