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Immunology of pre-eclampsia
Published in Pankaj Desai, Pre-eclampsia, 2020
Uterine gland knockout (UGKO) epithelial cells has proven to be useful in the understanding of the foetoplacental unit in early pregnancy. Understanding UGKO has come from experiments in pregnant ewes. It has been found that the epithelial cells and their secretory activities can be efficiently blocked by progestins. The hypothesis that progestins can block the uterine glandular activity was tested by Bartol et al. in 1988.7 They exposed ewes to norgestimate, a potent synthetic progestin, from their birth to postnatal day 13 and found that the uterine adenogenesis was successfully inhibited. Exposure of the neonatal ewes to norgestimate did not hamper the gross development of Müllerian system. Additionally, norgestimate did not affect the development of the brain or the hypothalamo-pituitary-ovarian axis, but it decisively blocked the development of the glandular component in the endometrium. This resulted in infertility or subsequent miscarriages in the ewes. Results from these studies explained the critical role of uterine glands in the secretion of uterine milk and a subsequent healthy pregnancy outcome.
Antigenic Status of Trophoblast in Humans and Mice
Published in Gérard Chaouat, The Immunology of the Fetus, 2020
Of particular interest may be whether any other trophoblast membrane components, or Class I-type MHC antigens, are associated with the binding of peptide hormones or cytokines to the cell surface.25 Human syncytiotrophoblast expresses a wide variety of cell-surface receptors for specific ligands, including those for epidermal growth factor (EGF), insulin, colony-stimulating factor-1 (M-CSF) and transferrin.20,33,44 Although some may function in initial recognition for maternal growth factors prior to their selective transfer into fetal tissues, it is of note that this growth factor receptor expression has been more readily detected on syncytiotrophoblast than cytotrophoblast populations. Syncytiotrophoblast is a terminally differentiated nondividing cell, and hence expression of receptors for factors known to induce cellular proliferation and differentiation is perplexing. These observations raise the question of the nature of selective genetic transcriptional control in such a gross multinucleated cell as syncytiotrophoblast which is capable of receiving diverse physiological signals. The uterine epithelium may secrete large amounts of M-CSF during pregnancy, which may play a key role in placental development and function.45 There is also evidence of common antigen alterations for both fetal trophoblast and maternal uterine gland epithelium in uteroplacental tissues in pregnancy.20,46
Histogenesis of Irreversible Changes in the Female Genital Tract After Perinatal Exposure to Hormones and Related Substances
Published in Takao Mori, Hiroshi Nagasawa, Toxicity of Hormones in Perinatal Life, 2020
Ultrastructurally, the cells of HCE and adenosis appear devoid of major cytoskeletal features such as the terminal web and lose polarity of cytoplasmic organization.82 The adenosis cells were different from uterine gland cells.
Alternation of ten-eleven translocation 1, 2, and 3 expression in eutopic endometrium of women with endometriosis-associated infertility
Published in Gynecological Endocrinology, 2018
Małgorzata Szczepańska, Przemyslaw Wirstlein, Małgorzata Zawadzka, Ewa Wender-Ożegowska, Paweł P. Jagodziński
Our study and that of Roca et al. [13] demonstrated the abnormal expression of TET1, TET2, and TET3 in women with endometriosis. The discrepancies between our results and those of Roca et al. [13] may be due to the employment of different models of cells in endometriosis. We conducted our study using primary eutopic endometrium consisting of a uterine gland, columnar epithelium and stromal fibroblast cell mix. Additionally, our study was carried out in selected IWE with determined menstrual phase cycle.
Zooming in on the endometrial factor of recurrent implantation failure
Published in Human Fertility, 2022
Chibuzor Ifenatuoha, Babatunde Okewale
Under the influence of oestradiol and progesterone in the mid-secretory phase, the endometrial stromal cells undergo decidualization. Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) is also an important mediator of decidualization. It is said to be a molecule that can induce decidualization. Endometrial decidualization is induced to promote the implantation of the blastocyst, ensures the growing embryo has optimum access to the blood supply, adequate nutrition before the placenta is formed, and create the right environment to protect the embryo from rejection due to the maternal immune system (Okada et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2013). The functional and morphological differentiation of the endometrial fibroblast-like stromal cells into secretory epithelioid-like decidual cells is called decidualization. It remodels the endometrium, and by so doing it reorders the endometrial vasculature and extracellular matrix, transforms the uterine gland to become secretory, and allows the entry of specialised uterine natural killer (uNK) cells (Okada et al., 2018). In humans, it occurs both in the presence and absence of the embryo (Gellersen et al., 2007; Peterse et al., 2018). Decidualization does not occur solely due to the presence of progesterone. The cell-to-cell interaction between the epithelial and stromal cells or the stromal cell and blood vessels, as well as the presence of the embryo, contribute to the initiation and completion of decidualization (S. Zhang et al., 2013). Interestingly, studies show that the process of decidualization is accompanied by changes in signalling molecules, chemokines, cytokines, growth factors, extracellular matrix cytoskeletal organisation, and so on (Okada et al., 2018). After decidualization, the endometrium can be said to be ready to support blastocyst implantation, which is attributed to its newly acquired biochemical and cellular properties (Okada et al., 2018).