An evidence of stromal cell populations functionally linked with epithelial cell populations in the mouse oviduct.

The oviductal epithelium consists of two major cell populations, secretory cells and cilial cells. In a previous report, we established clonal cell lines from the epithelium and stroma of an oviduct which allowed us to analyze stromal contribution to epithelial functions. Three stromal cell lines were co-cultured in separated apparatus with 3 epithelial cell lines, respectively. Two stromal cell lines preferentially stimulated mogp-1 expression on secretory cells and the stimulation was additive with estrogen. The lines had no effect on cilial cells. One stromal cell line preferentially stimulated foxj1 expression on cilial cells and the stimulation relieved suppression by estrogen. The line had no effect on secretory cells. Experiments with conditioned media of the stromal cells confirmed the results of co-culture experiments, suggesting that the oviductal stroma contains multiple cell populations preferentially regulating or modulating specific cell populations of the epithelium via diffusible factors.