ISSN:
1432-0878
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
Notes:
Summary The vaginal epithelium of castrate 8.5 week old mice undergoes spontaneous keratinization in the absence of estrogen when placed in hanging-drop organ cultures using chemically defined medium 199. The early stages of in vivo and in vitro keratinization have been shown to be similar and are characterized by marked increases in cytoplasmic ribosomes and filaments which correspond to known biochemical changes induced by estrogen in cells of the female genital tract. Similarly, there are early changes in nuclear chromatin and nucleoli in vitro indicative of active messenger-RNA and ribosomal-RNA synthesis. In the later stages of in vitro keratinization, however, there is, by electron microscopy, a failure of keratohyaline granule formation and incomplete filament aggregation. Thus, estrogen induced in vivo and spontaneous in vitro keratinization are not truly comparable. The changes occurring in the organ culture system used have, however, been shown to be reproducible and, at the light microscopic level, comparable to those previously described in other in vitro studies. The culture vessel used in the present study should offer certain advantages over other organ culture systems.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00320861
