Establishment and characterization of an immortalized human oviductal cellline

Human oviductal cells stimulate embryo development in vitro partly by the p roduction of embryotrophic glycoproteins. The identity of these glycoprotei ns is not yet known mainly because oviductal samples are limited and that t he cultured parental oviductal cells cannot produce sufficient amount of em bryotrophic factors for characterization. In this study, human oviductal ep ithelial cells (OE) were immortalized by HPV 16 E6/E7 open reading frame (O RF) by retroviral expression. The characteristics of this immortalized cell line (OE-E6/E7) were com pared to the parental OE. H PV 16 E6/E7 DNA was f ound only in OE-E6/E7 but not in OE. Human oviduct-specific glycoprotein, e strogen receptors, and cytokeratin were found in both cell types. Both OE a nd OE-E6/E7 possessed telomerase activities but the former had much lower a ctivity. OE-E6/E7 also produced glycoproteins with chromatographic behavior similar to the embryotrophic glycoproteins derived from OE. These results showed that OE-E6/E7 retained a number of characteristics of OE. The develo pment of preimplantation mouse embryo was significantly better after cocult ure with OE-E6/E7 when compared to medium alone culture in term of blastula tion rates (52% vs. 32%) and blastocyst diameter (113.0 +/- 2.07 mum vs. 83 .9 +/- 5.23 mum). This immortalized cell line can be used as a continuous a nd stable in vitro system for the study of the oviductal embryotrophic acti vity. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.