Reproduction Abstracts

Introduction: Uterine epithelial cells (UECs) undergo a number of changes to become receptive to blastocyst implantation including the loss of integrin based focal adhesions (FA), and increase in basolateral plasma membrane (PM) curvature; despite these changes UECs maintain a polarised state. Caveolae are lipid rich invaginations of the PM which contribute to membrane curvature. Major caveolae proteins (caveolin 1, and 2, PTRF, and SDPR) were investigated to explore the possi...

Introduction: During implantation, uterine luminal epithelial cells (UECs) disassemble cell–cell and cell–matrix adhesions that contribute to the formation of an epithelial barrier, which is refractory to blastocyst implantation. These changes are critical for successful implantation. We have shown previously that claudin 7 is present in UECs and is lost prior to implantation in the rat. Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is another protein frequently associat...