Resumen

ZAGA CLAVELLINA, CLAUDIA VERÓNICA et al. Desarrollo de un modelo experimental para la caracterización de la respuesta funcional del corioamnios humano. Perinatol. Reprod. Hum. [online]. 2004, vol.18, n.3, pp.162-171. ISSN 2524-1710.

Objective: This study was designed to validate and characterize a culture model of human choriamniotic membranes (HCM) that keeps their viability, integrity and capacity to reproduce a response to several stimulus associated to an infectious process, as the tissue that separates the fetal and maternal compartment. Material and methods: We use HCM obtained after delivery by elective cesarean section. Women with 37-40 weeks of gestation without evidence of active labor or presence of clinical an microbiological signs of intrauterine/vaginal infection. The membranes were mounted in transwell devices, allowing testing two independent compartments (chorion and amnion) by physically separating the upper and lower chambers. 500 ng/mL of lipopolysaccharide was added to amniotic or chorionic surface and secretions of TNFα was measured in both compartments by specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and Metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) secretions after stimulation with 5 ng/mL of IL-1β. Results: The viability test showed that the different cellular populations of the HCM keep their metabolic viability along 96 h of culture. The integrity parameters showed that the stay without morphologic and structural changes. Functional markers showed that membranes responded differentially to IL-1β stimulus; production of MMP-9 in chorion reached its maximum value at 4 h, while amnion reached it at 24 h. The selective stimulation of chorioamnion with lipopolysaccharide induced a differential synthesis of TNFα; the chorion was the principal producer with approximately 60% of total TNFα. Conclusions: The experimental model allows to study qualitatively and quantitatively the contribution of different cellular regions of the HCM, and its response to differential stimulation with immunologic agents.

Palabras llave : Fetal membranes; chorion; amnion; intrauterine infection; IL-1β; TNFα.