NOTCH and WNT pathways regulate stemness and differentiation in human fallopian tube long term organoid culture

We report the establishment of a stable 3D in vitro organoid culture procedure from human fallopian tube samples and confirming experimentally the existence of adult stem cells in this epithelial tissue. Long term growth and the differentiation of the organoids depend on the interplay between the paracrine signaling pathways Wnt, NOTCH and BMP, since R spondin 1 and Wnt3a are required for preservation of stemness in concert with continuous suppression of TGF-beta activity. Microarray analysis revealed that inhibition of NOTCH signaling by the gamma-secretase inhibitor DBZ leads to down-regulation of a gene cluster associated with pluripotency, as the adult stem cell signature is significantly enriched in the list of downregulated targets. Microarray experiments were performed as dual-color hybridizations on Agilent human whole genome catalog 44K arrays. To compensate for dye-specific effects, a dye-reversal color-swap was applied.