Is Human Decidua a Specialized Endocrine Organ?*

Abstract

The production of protein hormones by human placenta, amnion, chorion, and decidua capsularis was studied in in vitro experiments to establish whether the decidua could be considered a specialized structure for the release of PRL. The tissues were incubated in the incubation medium, we found a highly significant rise of PRL during culture of the decidua, while no increase was noticed during culture of the placenta or amnion. Conversely, chorionic somatomammotropin and CG increased greatly and quickly during culture of placenta but not during culture of other tissues. No significant change was found in GH. The total PRL released into the medium from decidua was 3 times higher than the initial PRL content of this sittue; addition of puromycin to the incubation medium reduced both the tissue content and the release of PRL to almost 50% of the control values. This result raises the possibility of a specific endocrine activity of decidua capsularis. The PRL-secreint cells of the decidua probably do not possess dopamine receptors, since bromocriptine, when added to the medium, did not influence the release of PRL, confirming our previous in vivo observations.

Productivity of immunoreactive prolactin (IR-PRL) by the human decidual explants: A new sampling method.

“…Our explant culture system for human decidual tissues was shown to be a good experimental model for studying the production of IR-PRL, but the larger amounts of IR-PRL release in the incubation medium for the first 24 hour interval may have been due to a contamination factor, such as a contamination by adherent maternal serum and/or amniotic fluid. A similar high rate of IR-PRL release was observed by Bigazzi et al (Bigazzi et al, 1979). Because our explant culture system for human decidual tissues is patent for a period of several days, it seems to be very effective in excluding contamination from both short-term and long-term culures.…”

“…Japon. FebruaryFurthermore, it was also revealed that the decidual tissues thus obtained constantly produced and secreted IR-PRL in the incubation medium in a considerably high amount even as compared with those previously reported (Golander et al, 1978;Bigazzi et al, 1979;Richards et al, 1982) and that the variation from specimen to specimen was so small as to make it possible to compare the production of IR-PRL by the decidual tissues under various conditions. Radioimmunoassay of PRL IR-PRL was measured in the incubation medium and in the supernatant of the tissue homogenate to assess the initial content in the tissues and its release in the incubation medium by using a PRL-RIA-KIT (PRL Kit, Daiichi).…”

“…IR-PRL release for the first 3 days amounted to more than 100ng/ml/10mg w.w. in our culture system, which was much greater than those previously reported where the maximal IR-PRL release was only 400 to 500ng/ml/100mg w.w. (Golander et al, 1978) or much less (Bigazzi et al, 1979;Richards et al, 1982). Our explant culture system for human decidual tissues was shown to be a good experimental model for studying the production of IR-PRL, but the larger amounts of IR-PRL release in the incubation medium for the first 24 hour interval may have been due to a contamination factor, such as a contamination by adherent maternal serum and/or amniotic fluid.…”

“…In the past several years, there have been some papers confirming this possibility by using short-term tissue and explant culture of the chorion-decidual tissues (Riddick and Kusmik, 1977;Golander et al, 1978;Bigazzi et al, 1979;Richards et al, 1982;Krug et al, 1983), which were obtained from the membranes associated with the placenta. However, because the closely adherent chorion and decidua could not be completely separated manually, it was impossible to determine which of the tissues synthesized IR-PRL.…”

Follow-Up of Children Born of Bromocriptine-Treated Mothers

“…Furthermore, it has been reported that PRL production in deciduous tissue cultures is not controlled by dopamine, and in particular, it is unaffected by BC. Thus, even when BC treatment continued to term, yielding low fetal and maternal blood PRL levels, amniotic fluid levels remain normal [15][16][17], There is a second theoretical risk: a possible effect of depressed maternal dopamine levels upon fetal development, e.g. in macroPROL not treated or treated for less than 4 weeks; this has not been considered, except during the first weeks of pregnancy [18].…”