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Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on June 8, 2006
Human Reproduction 2006 21(9):2281-2289; doi:10.1093/humrep/del176
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Identification of estrogen receptor beta-positive intraepithelial lymphocytes and their possible roles in normal and tubal pregnancy oviducts

Shirendeb Ulziibat1,2, Kuniaki Ejima1, Yasuaki Shibata3, Yoshitaka Hishikawa1, Michio Kitajima2, Akira Fujishita2, Tadayuki Ishimaru2,5 and Takehiko Koji1,4

1 Division of Histology and Cell Biology, Department of Developmental and Reconstructive Medicine, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences 2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nagasaki University School of Medicine and 3 Division of Oral Pathology and Bone Metabolism, Department of Developmental and Reconstructive Medicine, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan

4 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Division of Histology and Cell Biology, Department of Developmental and Reconstructive Medicine, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan. E-mail: tkoji{at}net.nagasaki-u.ac.jp

5 Present address: Sasebo Chuo Hospital, Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan

BACKGROUND: Although intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) in human oviductal epithelium have been implicated in the regulation of local immunity, the precise kinetics and mechanism of steroid regulation of IEL are largely unknown. METHODS: We examined the localization of estrogen receptors (ERs) and progesterone receptors (PRs) in 41 human oviducts by immunohistochemistry. These tissues were obtained from various menstrual cycles, also from both post-menopausal women and tubal pregnancies. The expressions of ERbeta mRNA and membrane (m)PR mRNA were examined by in situ hybridization and RT–PCR, respectively. RESULTS: Most of the IEL expressed ERbeta at both mRNA and protein levels. The number of ERbeta-positive IEL, which were identified as CD8-positive T lymphocytes and also were mPR positive, was increased in the late proliferative, the mid-secretory and late secretory phases in normally cycling women (P < 0.05). Interestingly, in tubal pregnancy, ERbeta-positive IELs were consistently abundant. In addition, we found a high Ki-67-labelling index for IEL, although ER{alpha} was entirely absent in the tubal pregnancy oviducts. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the number of IEL fluctuated because of estrogen and progesterone levels probably through ERbeta and mPR, respectively. ERbeta-positive IEL may be involved in regulating immune tolerance in tubal pregnancy oviducts.

Key words: estrogen receptors/human oviduct/intraepithelial lymphocytes/membrane progesterone receptor/tubal pregnancy


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