Mechanisms of Hormone Action

Expression of Exogenous Human Telomerase in Cultures of Endometrial Stromal Cells Does Not Alter Their Hormone Responsiveness

Abstract
In the human endometrium, stromal cells mediate the proliferative response of epithelial cells to the steroid hormones estrogen and progesterone. These stromal-epithelial interactions are readily studied in vitro by coculture of both cell types. A major impediment to such studies is the rapid senescence of normal stromal cells. To circumvent this problem, we tested whether human endometrial stromal cells immortalized by expressing a transduced human Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT) subunit, retained the ability to mediate hormonal control of epithelial proliferation in the coculture assay. We found that the telomerized stromal cells were very similar to the parental strain they were derived from by criteria of proliferation, karyotype, cellular localization of cytoskeletal markers and nuclear staining, and basal gene expression based on microarray analysis. We also showed that expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors, assessed by immunodetection, was similar in both telomerized and parental stromal cells. Importantly, the telomerized stromal cells were shown in coculture assay to be as effective as normal stromal cells in regulating the proliferation of endometrial epithelial cells in response to estrogen or progesterone. The availability of these long-lived stromal cells may advance studies addressing the mechanistic, regulatory, and cell structural basis of stromal-epithelial interactions and hormonal responses in normal, preneoplastic, and neoplastic human endometrial tissue.

Key words: Female Reproductive Tract • Steroid hormone receptors • Uterus

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. Barbier, H. J. Kloosterboer, and D. G. Kaufman Effects of Tibolone Metabolites on Human Endometrial Cell Lines in Co-culture Reproductive Sciences, January 1, 2008; 15(1): 75 - 82. [Abstract] [PDF]

				P. Chapdelaine, J. Kang, S. Boucher-Kovalik, N. Caron, J. P. Tremblay, and M. A. Fortier Decidualization and maintenance of a functional prostaglandin system in human endometrial cell lines following transformation with SV40 large T antigen Mol. Hum. Reprod., May 1, 2006; 12(5): 309 - 319. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Tang, A. Mikhailik, I. Pauli, L. C. Giudice, A. T. Fazelabas, S. Tulac, D. D. Carson, D. G. Kaufman, C. Barbier, J. W. M. Creemers, et al. Decidual Differentiation of Stromal Cells Promotes Proprotein Convertase 5/6 Expression and Lefty Processing Endocrinology, December 1, 2005; 146(12): 5313 - 5320. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]