Upregulation of mRNA expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and its receptors by exogenous human chorionic gonadotropin in cultured oviduct mucosal cells.

ABSTRACT

The mucosal cells were isolated from the ampullary regions of 20 human oviducts and cultured with or without hCG in five different concentrations (1-100 ng/mL). As analyzed by the semiquantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, hCG treatment significantly increased mRNA expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and its receptor flt-1 in the cultured mucosal cells in a dose-dependent manner but had no effect on the expression of another receptor, KDR.