title: Epithelial-stromal interactions in the mouse vagina exposed neonatally to diethylstilbestrol.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In neonate mice exposed to diethylstilbestrol (neoDES), vaginal epithelium shows persistent proliferation and stratification even after ovariectomy. Tissue recombination studies suggest that neonatally-estrogenized vaginal stroma can induce vaginal epithelial hyperplasia depending on the stromal age. This study examined the proliferative effect of the vaginal stroma from 8-day-old mice treated with DES on the vaginal epithelia of 8-day-old and adult mice.
  
  
  METHODS
  Vaginal epithelium and stroma from 8-day-old and adult mice was recombined, and grafted to ovariectomized host mice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU)-labeled cells in the epithelium and the number of epithelial cell layers were not significantly different between epithelia from 8-day-old and adult mice when combined with stroma from 8-day-old control mice. BrdU-labeled cells in the vaginal epithelia from both age groups combined with the stroma from 8-day-old neoDES mice exhibited higher values. The epithelium from neoDES adult mice had a lower percentage of BrdU-labeled cells.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The stroma from 8-day-old neoDES mice induces epithelial cell proliferation, but lower stromal cell proliferation.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Nanobioscience, Yokohama City University, 22-2 Seto, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Japan. tomomi@yokohama-cu.ac.jp
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Katoh
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Taisen
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iguchi
authors.forename: Tomomi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sato
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001973:Bromodeoxyuridine / Q000378:metabolism; D002273:Carcinogens / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000187:drug effects*; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D004054:Diethylstilbestrol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D014621:Vagina / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D002273:Carcinogens; D004054:Diethylstilbestrol; D001973:Bromodeoxyuridine