Proliferative behavior of vaginal fibroblasts from women with pelvic organ prolapse

作者：Sun, Bin; Zhou, Lu; Wen, Yan^*; Wang, Chenhong; Baer, Thomas M.; Pera, Renee R.; Chen, Bertha

来源：European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, 2014, 183: 1-4.

DOI：10.1016/j.ejogrb.2014.09.040

• Vaginal fibroblasts
• Cell proliferation
• Mitotic index
• Time-lapse dark-field microscopy
• TGF-beta 1

Objective: Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) significantly impacts quality of life of women, especially with advancing age. Cell proliferation is a critical parameter in both normal and pathophysiological processes. We sought to examine fibroblast proliferation in premenopausal women with and without POP and menopausal women with POP, and examine whether TGF-beta 1, a fibroblast mitogen, could stimulate proliferation in vaginal fibroblasts from these populations.
Study design: Vaginal wall biopsies were obtained from asymptomatic women (controls) and women with POP (cases). Fibroblasts were cultured from these tissues. Vaginal fibroblasts were treated with or without TGF-beta 1. Cell proliferation rate (mitotic index) was measured with time-lapse dark-field microscopy. Cell mitosis was counted with Image). software after analysis of time-lapse images as Quick time movies.
Results: There was no significant difference in mitotic index throughout different time points of observation between premenopausal controls and cases of similar ages. However, a significant difference in mitotic index was seen between premenopausal and menopausal cases (p = 0.01), with the menopausal group exhibiting significantly lower mitotic indices. When treated with different doses of TGF-beta 1, premenopausal control fibroblast proliferation increased with 5 ng/ml of TGF-beta 1 compared to non-treated fibroblasts (p = 0.04). TGF-beta 1 stimulation did not affect fibroblasts from either premenopausal or menopausal cases.
Conclusions: Vaginal fibroblast proliferation decreases with age and this association does not appear to be affected by the presence of pelvic organ prolapse. TGF-beta 1 stimulation increased cell proliferation of premenopausal control fibroblasts. In contrast, there was no response seen in fibroblasts from premenopausal and menopausal cases.

• 出版日期2014-12
• 单位广州医科大学