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Uterine Preparation for Blastocyst Attachment

  • Chapter
Cellular Signals Controlling Uterine Function

Summary

Existing models used to analyze uterine receptivity to blastocyst attachment have thus far failed to account for non-genotypic embryonic loss following in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer in any species. Although application of the technology for biochemistry and molecular biology has yielded useful information about the uterus at a molecular level, the regulatory mechanisms of ovoreceptivity and implantation remain elusive.

Separation of the component uterine cell types has demonstrated that uterine epithelial and stromal cells can respond independently as well as interdependently to the same regulatory signal. Biochemical and immunocytochemical analysis of these responses can be extended further by development of in vitro culture systems which resemble as closely as possible the conditions of cellular growth and development in vivo.

Such an in vitro culture system has been developed for primary cultures of uterine epithelial cells. When grown on EHS matrix-coated semi-permeable filters, the cells attach, proliferate to confluence and establish morphological and functional indices of polarity. Uterine epithelial cells cultured under these conditions demonstrate a basal preference for amino acid uptake, are active in both apical and basal secretion, and are responsive to steroid hormones. When blastocysts are co-cultured with estrogen-treated epithelial cells, they fail to attach. These same embryos attach readily, however, if transferred to matrix-coated filters, plastic culture wells, or cultures of uterine stromal cells. The polarized epithelial cell culture therefore appears to provide a functional in vitro model for ovoreceptivity and embryo attachment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell Biology, Center for Population Research and Studies in Reproductive Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, 77030, USA

    Joy Mulholland & Stanley R. Glasser

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  1. Joy Mulholland
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  2. Stanley R. Glasser
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas, USA

    Lynn A. Lavia

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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Mulholland, J., Glasser, S.R. (1991). Uterine Preparation for Blastocyst Attachment. In: Lavia, L.A. (eds) Cellular Signals Controlling Uterine Function. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3724-3_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-3724-3_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6657-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-3724-3

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