Chapter 1 Studies of Human Endometrium in Organ Culture

Publisher Summary The chapter focuses to gain a greater understanding of the process of chemical carcinogenesis in human endometrium by observing long-term toxic and carcinogenic effects of chemicals on this tissue. Such observations require that methods be developed for the long-term maintenance morphological and biochemical properties of the endometrium tissue in vitro as organ cultures. This chapter describes such an in vitro model designed for long-term maintenance of human endometrial explants in organ culture. One feature of the methods mentioned that contributed to the sustained vitality of our organ cultures is the use of L-glutamine at concentrations much higher than those used in earlier studies with endometrial tissue. The results of this study demonstrate that human endometrial tissue can be maintained as organ cultures in vitro for many months. The tissue in culture retains differentiated morphology, responsiveness to hormones, and capacity for macromolecular synthesis. These properties provide opportunities for a wide variety of experimental studies. Human endometrial organ cultures provide a promising system for attempting to transform human cells in organ culture.