Genistein crosses the bioartificial oviduct and alters secretion composition

- This manuscript utilises an existing technology for the novel application of investigating the effects of genistein on the oviduct in vitro.
- The data show that genistein transverses the oviduct epithelium biphasically and moreover impacts the luminal secretion of amino acids.
- This could explain, in part, previous reports of genistein perturbing central reproductive events such as implantation and cleavage.

The dietary derived isoflavone and oestrogen analogue, genistein, is known to perturb fundamental reproductive events such as implantation and embryo cleavage. However the question of whether genistein is able to traverse the oviduct epithelial monolayer and impact oviduct fluid secretion remains unclear. This study tests these research questions using a bioartificial oviduct to show that genistein permeates the oviduct lumen in vitro with a biphasic (burst and plateau) kinetic profile, faster than spontaneous diffusion, and alters the amino acid composition of in vitro derived oviduct fluid (ivDOF) but not as an oestrogen analogue. In addition to offering insights into the potential mechanisms of these findings, this manuscript demonstrates the potential to use the bioartificial oviduct model to characterise the transport or barrier properties of the oviduct towards a range of circulating xenobiotics.