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: In preparation for blastocyst implantation, the microvilli of uterine epithelial cells (UECs) are lost and the apical plasma membrane flattens. Prominin-1 is a membrane glycoprotein restricted to the apical domain of epithelial cells, while the structurally related prominin-2 is distributed throughout the plasma membrane of epithelial cells in a non-polarised way. This study aimed to examine the expression of prominin-1 and -2 in UECs to examine their potential r...