The University of Hong Kong, China (People's Republic)
Abstract: Infertility is a major health care issue and many infertile women require assisted reproduction technology to get pregnant. Despite improvements in in vitro fertilization, repeated implantation failure (RIF) remains a significant challenge for couples. One factor contributing to this failure is inadequate endometrial receptivity. Our previous study demonstrated the important role of endometrial E-cadherin (CDH1) during embryo implantation. With the use of an embryo mimic derived from human expanded potential stem cell (hEPSC), this study aimed at investigating the roles of CDH1 and its stabilizer p120ctn (CTNND1) in endometrial receptivity. The functional role of CDH1 in endometrial receptivity was studied by overexpression of CDH1 in non-receptive endometrial epithelial HEC-1B cell line. hEPSC derived trophoblastic spheroid was cocultured with CDH1 overexpressing HEC-1B cells to test the receptivity. CDH1 protein induction was confirmed in HEC-1B. However, CDH1 overexpression had no improvement in the attachment rate as compared with receptive endometrial epithelial Ishikawa cells. In conclusion, overexpression of CDH1 in non-receptive HEC-1B cell was not sufficient to induce the receptivity of the cells, indicating the involvement of multiple molecules which warrant future investigation.
