Changes of Intermediate Filament Protein Localization in Endometrial Cells During Early Pregnancy of Rabbits

Abstract

Implantation is initiated by an interaction of trophoblast with the uterine epithelium via the apical cell poles of both partners. Aspects of changes that must take place in the glycocalyx and in the plasma membrane, to allow this process to be initiated are discussed in other contributions to this volume. There appears to be good reason, however, to bring the cytoskeleton into the picture, since findings obtained in other systems give strong evidence for interactions between it and the cell membranes (Tachi et al., 1970; Jones and Goldman, 1985; Perides et al., 1986a,b; Traub et al., 1987; Lazarides, 1980, for review see: Cowin et al., 1985; Geiger et al., 1985). There are only a few reports on the occurrence of intermediate filaments (IF) in the uterine epithelium. Franke et al. (1986) have studied IF in the proliferative phase of the human endometrial epithelium. Khong et al. (1986) concentrated on the expression of IF in the placenta, amniochorion, and placental bed in humans and Dabbs et al. (1986) used IF as diagnostic tools for histologic differentiation of uterine adenocarcinomas. Viale et al. (1988) described coexpression of vimentin and keratin in endometrial glands.