Establishment and characterization of clonal cell lines from the vagina of p53-deficient young mice.

Clonal cell lines have been established from vagina of prepubertal female p53(-/-) mice. Because the mouse vagina has a dual origin (the cranial three-fifths derived from the Müllerian duct and the caudal two-fifths derived from the urogenital sinus), both parts were separately subjected to cloning. Sixteen epithelial and two fibroblastic cell lines were established from the cranial three-fifths (Müllerian vagina group), and four epithelial and three fibroblastic cell lines were established from the caudal two-fifths (sinus vagina group). They were maintained in Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium and Ham's nutrient mixture F-12 containing 10% fetal calf serum and 17 beta-estradiol at 10(-8) M. Two cell lines (one epithelial and one fibroblastic) were examined using soft agar assay, but no colonies were formed. The doubling time of the cell lines was approximately 24 h, and all of them divided more than 200 times without crisis, suggesting that they were immortalized. All epithelial cell lines expressed cytokeratin 8. However, the epithelial cell lines expressed cytokeratin 14 and cytokeratin 10 when exposed to medium containing different concentrations of Ca(2+). Fibroblastic cell lines expressed vimentin. All epithelial and fibroblastic cell lines expressed estrogen receptor-alpha protein. This is the first successful establishment of clonal cell lines from the normal mouse vagina, and these lines may provide good models in vitro of the vagina for the study of the mechanism of estrogen action.