Impact of estradiol during 3-D culture system of bovine oviduct epithelial cells

Abstract

The oviduct plays an essential role in mammalian reproduction. Paracrine, endocrine and autocrine factors are essential for the refined control of oviductal functions. Studies from our group about impacts of ovarian superstimulation (OVS) on oviductal microenvironment demonstrated a higher estradiol levels in oviduct and a positive correlation of this increasing with up regulation of genes related to gamete interaction. Due to intra-abdominal location and difficulty access in situ, in vivo study of the oviduct has some restriction. Therefore, in vitro cultures of oviductal cells have been study; however most of them lose the oviductal characteristic as morphology and gene/protein expression. The research group of Dr. Bart M. Gadella, from University of Utrecht, Netherland, was the first one to design a successfully 3-D printed oviduct-on-a-chip, which allows the live-cell imaging, with polarized and functional cells over 6 weeks of culture. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to gain know how about oviductal cells in a 3-D culture system and together, to evaluated the effect of different concentrations of estradiol on cellular morphology and viability and after maybe prospect the impacts of transcriptional pattern in these cells and the interaction of these system with embryo development. After oviductal cell culture with different concentration of estradiol, the oviductal cells will be stained by immunefluorescence for evaluation of morphological aspects, apical medium and cells recovery for future investigation in Brazil. In summary, we expect that the present study allows the increasing of understanding about isolated estradiol effect in a 3-D culture system bovine oviduct and maybe to be useful a potential mechanism to modulate in vitro embryo production. (AU)