| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,000,000)
Fiscal Year 1994: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 1993: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
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| Research Abstract |
1) EFFECT OF MACROPHAGES ON PROLIFERATION OF GRANULOSA CELLS.
In immunohistochemical and ultrastructural observation of rat ovaries, macrophages were identified in the granulosa layr of preantral follicles, and in the granulosa layr or antrum of antral and mature follicles, as well as in corpora lutea and in the stroma around the follicles of rat ovary. The [^3H] thymidine labeling index of cultured granulosa cells was significantly greater in the culture with macrophages than in the culture of granulosa cells alone. So, macrophages may participate in promoting proliferation of granulosa cells as local mediators in growing follicles. Immunohistochemical study with anti-epidermal growth factor (EGF) antibody revealed that the EGF positive cells in the developing follicles are macrophages. Although EGF also did not promote granulosa cell growth in vitro, the labeling index with [^3H] thymidine of granulosa cells cultured with EGF and fibroblast growth factor (FGF), which is reported to be
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produced by macrophages, was significantly greater than that without growth factors. These result suggest that macrophages in the growing follicles may modulate follicular development through a paracrine mechanism by secreting EGF and other growth factors.
2) ROLE OF MACROPHAGES ON THE FUNCTION OF TROPHOBLASTS.
By light microscopic immunohistochemistry, macrophages in the stroma of human chorionic villi showed a weak positive reaction for hCG-alpha subunit and a marked positive reaction for hCG-beta subunit (hCG-beta). However, immunoreactivity for hCG-beta C-terminal peptide was negative. Immunoreaction products of hCG-beta were localized in coated pits, coated vesicles, and multivesicular bodies, and also within the cytoplasmic vacuoles and granules, but not in the intracytoplasmic spaces, organelles, or nucleus. In addition, acid phosphatase activity was observed in these vacuoles and granules.The hCG/LH receptor was not defined in the cell suspensions of these macrophages by hCG radioreceptor assay. The present study provides evidence these that macrophages ingest hCG secreted from the syncytiotrophoblasts without a receptor-mediated endocytotic mechanism, and that they may participate in the control of hCG. Less
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