Ghosh Arnab, Syed Shafiq M, Kumar Manish, Carpenter Tyler J, Teixeira Jose M, Houairia Nathaniel, Negi Sumedha, Tanwar Pradeep S
School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia; Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, NSW 2305, Australia.
Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA.
Cell Rep. 2020 May 12;31(6):107631. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107631.
The mesenchymal to epithelial transition (MET) is thought to be involved in the maintenance, repair, and carcinogenesis of the fallopian tube (oviduct) and uterine epithelium. However, conclusive evidence for the conversion of mesenchymal cells to epithelial cells in these organs is lacking. Using embryonal cell lineage tracing with reporters driven by mesenchymal cell marker genes of the female reproductive tract (AMHR2, CSPG4, and PDGFRβ), we show that these reporters are also expressed by some oviductal and uterine epithelial cells at birth. These mesenchymal reporter-positive epithelial cells are maintained in adult mice across multiple pregnancies, respond to ovarian hormones, and form organoids. However, no labeled epithelial cells are present in any oviductal or uterine epithelia when mesenchymal cell labeling was induced in adult mice. Organoids developed from mice labeled in adulthood were also negative for mesenchymal reporters. Collectively, our work found no definitive evidence of MET in the adult fallopian tube and uterine epithelium.
间充质向上皮转化（MET）被认为参与输卵管（子宫）和子宫上皮的维持、修复及致癌过程。然而，缺乏这些器官中间充质细胞转化为上皮细胞的确凿证据。通过使用由雌性生殖道间充质细胞标记基因（AMHR2、CSPG4和PDGFRβ）驱动的报告基因进行胚胎细胞谱系追踪，我们发现这些报告基因在出生时也由一些输卵管和子宫上皮细胞表达。这些间充质报告基因阳性的上皮细胞在成年小鼠的多次妊娠中得以维持，对卵巢激素有反应，并形成类器官。然而，当在成年小鼠中诱导间充质细胞标记时，任何输卵管或子宫上皮中均不存在标记的上皮细胞。成年期标记小鼠发育的类器官对间充质报告基因也呈阴性。总体而言，我们的研究未发现成年输卵管和子宫上皮中存在MET的确切证据。
