title: Designing 3-Dimensional In Vitro Oviduct Culture Systems to Study Mammalian Fertilization and Embryo Production.
abstract: The oviduct was long considered a largely passive conduit for gametes and embryos. However, an increasing number of studies into oviduct physiology have demonstrated that it specifically and significantly influences gamete interaction, fertilization and early embryo development. While oviduct epithelial cell (OEC) function has been examined during maintenance in conventional tissue culture dishes, cells seeded into these two-dimensional (2-D) conditions suffer a rapid loss of differentiated OEC characteristics, such as ciliation and secretory activity. Recently, three-dimensional (3-D) cell culture systems have been developed that make use of cell inserts to create basolateral and apical medium compartments with a confluent epithelial cell layer at the interface. Using such 3-D culture systems, OECs can be triggered to redevelop typical differentiated cell properties and levels of tissue organization can be developed that are not possible in a 2-D culture. 3-D culture systems can be further refined using new micro-engineering techniques (including microfluidics and 3-D printing) which can be used to produce 'organs-on-chips', i.e. live 3-D cultures that bio-mimic the oviduct. In this review, concepts for designing bio-mimic 3-D oviduct cultures are presented. The increased possibilities and concomitant challenges when trying to more closely investigate oviduct physiology, gamete activation, fertilization and embryo production are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Farm Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 104, 3584CM, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marcia A M M
authors.initials: MAMM
authors.lastname: Ferraz
authors.affiliation: Department of Equine Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 112, 3584CM,, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Heiko H W
authors.initials: HHW
authors.lastname: Henning
authors.affiliation: Department of Farm Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 104, 3584CM, Utrecht, The Netherlands.|Department of Equine Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 112, 3584CM,, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tom A E
authors.initials: TAE
authors.lastname: Stout
authors.affiliation: Department of Farm Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 104, 3584CM, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter L A M
authors.initials: PLAM
authors.lastname: Vos
authors.affiliation: Department of Farm Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 104, 3584CM, Utrecht, The Netherlands. b.m.gadella@uu.nl.|Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 79, 3584CM, Utrecht, The Netherlands. b.m.gadella@uu.nl.
authors.forename: Bart M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Gadella
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D005187:Fallopian Tubes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005306:Fertilization; D006801:Humans; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods
keywords: 3-D culture; Bio-engineering; Embryo development; Fallopian tube; Microfluidics; Polarized epithelium