Effects of Progesterone and 17β-Estradiol under Presence or Absence of FBS on Plasminogen Activators Activity in Porcine Uterine Epithelial Cells.

The present study was conducted to investigate the regulatory mechanism of plasminogen activators (PAs) activation by 17β-estradiol (E2 ) and progesterone (P4 ) in porcine uterine epithelial cells (pUECs). pUECs were collected from porcine uterine horn and cultured at 80% confluence. Then, 0.1% (v/v) DMSO, 20 ng/mL E2 , and P4 with or without fetal bovine serum (FBS) treated to cultured cells for 24 hours. The supernatants were used for measurement of PAs activity and expression of urokinase-type PA ( uPA ), tissue-type PA ( tPA ), uPA specific receptor ( uPAR ), and type-1 PA inhibitor ( PAI-1 ) mRNA were analyzed by real-time PCR. The expression of PAs-related genes was not affect by steroid hormones in both of serum treatment groups. However, PAs activity was increased by treatment of E2 compared to 0.1% DMSO treatment in serum-free group ( p <0.05). Then, E2 and P4 were diluted with 0.002% (v/v) DMSO for reduction of its effect and treated to cultured cells without FBS. Only tPA mRNA was significantly increased by E2 treatment ( p <0.05). PAs activity was enhanced in E2 treated group compared to control groups ( p <0.05). These results indicate that serum-free condition is more proper to evaluate effect of steroid hormones and activation of PAs in pUECs was mainly regulated by estrogen. These regulation of PAs activation may be associated with uterine remodeling during pre-ovulatory phase in pigs, however, further studies are needed to investigate precise regulatory mechanism.