Human Fallopian Tubes in Organ Culture: Preparation, Maintenance, and Quantitation of Damage by Pathogenic Microorganisms

An experimental organ culture model has been developed in which rates of damage to fallopian tube mucosa by agents of sexually transmitted diseases can be quantitated. This required assessment of the effect on organ cultures of such variables as the anatomic area of the fallopian tube employed, endocrinological status of the donor, and composition of media. Organ cultures established from the ampulla of tubes of nonpregnant, premenopausal women and maintained with Eagle minimal essential medium containing 0.05 M N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N'-2-ethanesulfonic acid buffer were most suitable for quantitative studies. Various means of quantitating damage to fallopian tube mucosa were evaluated. Of these, sequential estimations of ciliary vigor and percentage of the periphery of fallopian tube pieces with active cilia proved the most successful. To assess the specificity of the model, fallopian tube organ cultures were infected with Neisseria gonorrhoeae or N. pharyngis, a commensal Neisseria. Damage by N. gonorrhoeae was significantly greater than that by N. pharyngis at each period of observation (P less than 0.001), suggesting that, by using the model, differences in virulence can be determined in vitro that reflect differences in virulence for humans. This model is a potentially valuable tool for studying the interaction of human genital mucosa with known or suspected agents of sexually transmitted diseases.