418. EXPRESSION AND FUNCTION OF BACTERICIDAL/PERMEABILITY - INCREASING PROTEIN IN HUMAN GENITAL TRACT EPITHELIAL CELLS.

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Canny¹, G., Trifonova², R., Kindelberger³, D., Colgan¹, S., Fichorova², R. ¹Center for Experimental Therapeutics and Reperfusion Injury, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, ²Laboratory of Genital Tract Biology, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, ³Cytology Division and Women’s and Perinatal Pathology Division, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 194, 498-502, (2006).

Summary:
This study by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School demonstrated that MatTek’s EpiVaginal human cervico-vaginal tissue equivalent expresses bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI) and that this protein’s role in regulating bacterial colonization in the genital mucosa can be studied in vitro using EpiVaginal tissues.

Genital tract epithelia regularly encounter and adapt to the existence of bacterial pathogens.

This study by scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School (USA) provides evidence that the endocervical and ecto-cervical epithelia of the human female genital tract (among those used in the study were MatTek EpiVaginal in vitro reconstructed human ecto-cervical epithelial equivalents) express bactericidal/ permeability-increasing protein (BPI). The constitutive expression of BPI was restricted to cell-bound protein and unaffected by human papillomavirus type 16/E6E7 immortalization and proinflammatory cytokine stimulation. Epithelial BPI was, in part, responsible for killing a commensal strain of Escherichia coli.

The results of the present study suggest that BPI is tightly regulated and functionally expressed by epithelial cells in the female reproductive tract and may play a role in regulating bacterial colonization in the genital mucosa.

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EpiVaginal Data Sheet

EpiVaginal Specifications

EpiVaginal Technical References

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Applications: Immunological research, Inflammation - vaginal, Innate immunity

Keywords: Bacteria killing assays, Bacterial pathogens, Bactericidal protein of 55 kDa molecular mass (BP55), Bactericidal/permeability increasing protein (BPI), Cationic antibacterial protein of 57 kDa (CAP57), Endocervical and ectocervical epithelia, Endometrium, EpiVaginal, Epithelial BPI, Escherichia coli (E-Coli), Genital tract epithelia, Human papillomavirus type 16/E6E7 immortalization, Proinflammatory cytokine stimulation, Stratified nonkeratinizing squamos epithelia, VEC-100

Endpoints: Cell bound-BPI, Cytokine stimulation, Human BPI, Il-6, Protein analysis

Materials Tested: BPI neutralizing antibody, Caco-2 intestinal epithelial cells, Cell lysates, E. coli, Endocervical (End1/E6E7) epithelial cells, Human BPI ELISA , Human cervical tissues, Human ectocervical equivalent, IFN-gamma, IL-6 QuantiGlo ELISA, Il-1b, Immortalized ectocervical (ECT1/E6E7) cells, TNF-a, Tumor necrosis, VEC-100

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