Macroscopic and histologic tissue reaction to polydioxanone, a new, synthetic, monofilament microsuture

A major contributing factor to failure in reconstructive tubal surgery is adhesion formation. It can be due to the presence of a foreign body primarily represented by suture material. A new, synthetic, absorbable suture material, Polydioxanone (PDS), was compared to polyglactin -910 (Vicryl). Microsurgical anastomosis of the bicornuate rat uterus served as a model. The right horn was anastomosed with 6-0 or 8-0 PDS and the left horn with Vicryl of the same diameter. At 3, 7, 14, 30 and 60 days after the procedure three to four animals were killed and the histologic reaction estimated and compared between the two horns. At 60 days the remaining animals were killed, and adhesion formation around the anastomosis site was recorded. PDS was found to be histologically more inert than Vicryl and was associated with a less intense acute and chronic inflammatory response than Vicryl. Similarly, macroscopic examination showed that the adhesion formation was quantitatively reduced in the PDS-treated horns, and most of those adhesions were avascular. The high inertness and absorbability suggest a practical application of PDS in infertility surgery.     

Establishment of a new human endometrial adenocarcinoma cell line, Ishikawa cells, containing estrogen and progesterone receptors

A new human endometrial adenocarcinoma cell line, Ishikawa cells, was established from an endometrial adenocarcinoma from a 39-year-old woman and has been maintained in vitro for more than 3 years. The cells were found to form a monolayer in a mosaic fashion and to tend to pile up. Population doubling time was calculated to be about 36, 29 and 27 hours at the 9th, 40th and 50th generations, respectively. The modal chromosomal number of the cells fell in a diploid range. Histology of the tumor induced in athymic nude mice showed it to be a well differentiated adenocarcinoma which closely resembled the original human tumor. Estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor were demonstrated to occur not only in the induced tumor in athymic nude mice but also in in vitro culture cells. From the fact that the cell growth was maintained in an estrogen-free medium, it appeared that the cells had no estrogen dependency.