Human vaginal epithelial multilayer tissue culture.

Fragments of normal human adult vagina, when explanted onto glass slides gave rise to outgrowing sheets of pure epithelium, which had microscopic morphological features in common with normal vaginal epithelium. Infrequent fibroblast contamination was observed. Proliferating epithelial cells formed multilayers of stratified squamous epithelium and demonstrated a progressive decrease in proliferative activity after 14 days. Continuous lines of epithelial cells were not obtained. Even in the absence of estrogens, transmission electron microscopy revealed evidence of keratinization of the superficial cells of the multilayer. Scanning electron microscopy of the surface of mature epithelial cells in culture revealed ultrastructural features that closely resembled those present on the surface of exfoliated cells obtained by scraping the vagina in vivo. This in vitro tissue culture model of human vaginal epithelium may provide a simple method of studying factors that influence vaginal epithelium growth, maturation and function.