[Tissue repair of uterine cervix--cell-biological properties of normal uterine cervical epithelia of transformation zone in vitro].

The objective of this study is to culture the epithelia of the transformation zone of the uterine cervix for long term and evaluate their biological characteristics, such as morphology, growth behavior, alkaline phosphatase activity and heterotransplantability. The epithelia of transformation zone of 15 cases of myoma uteri were cut into 1 x 1 x 1 mm fragments and placed directly on the cover glass. The explants were cultured at 37 degrees C in 5% CO2 and 95% air. In vitro outgrowth of squamous cells (squamous cell outgrowth pattern) was observed in 44, that of columnar cells (columnar cell outgrowth pattern) was observed 49, a mixture of squamous and columnar cell outgrowth patterns was 52 out of 198 explants of transformation zone. The squamous cells were polygonal in shape and showed a pavement-like cell arrangement. The glandular cells grew in whorled fashion. Along the margins of the outgrowth of glandular cells, two types of cells were seen after 2 weeks of culture. One type contained secretory vacuoles of glandular cell, and the other type contained a large number of tonofilaments of squamous metaplastic cells. These phenomena suggested that biological characteristics of the cells in vivo can well be retained in vitro for a relative long term (about 6 weeks).