Studies of ciliated epithelia of the human genital tract. III. Mucociliary wave activity in organ cultures of human fallopian tubes challenged with Neisseria gonorrhoeae and gonococcal endotoxin

Abstract

Quantitative determinations of the mucociliary activity of human Fallopian tube epithelium maintained as organ cultures were performed using a light beam reflex method. In non-infected organ cultures the mucociliary wave (MCW) frequency slowly decreased during the first 54 hours of culture maintenance. In organ cultures experimentally infected with fresh isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae producing T1/T2 colonies the MCW frequency either decreased to subnormal values or completely ceased whereas in organ cultures infected with a laboratory-adapted gonococcal strain the MCW frequencies remained within normal range. In organ cultures exposed to gonococcal endotoxin from the laboratory-adapted strain, as well as in cultures in which cell-free filtrates of medium from organ cultures infected with N. gonorrhoeae (producing T1/T2 colonies) were added to the culture medium, the ciliary activity decreased and subsequently ceased. The same phenomenon occurred when organ cultures were challenged with Escherichia coli endotoxin. The ciliostatic effect appeared before any morphological changes in the surface epithelium, including the cilia, were demonstrable by scanning electron microscopy.