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Human Reproduction, Vol. 14, No. 12, 3101-3106, December 1999
© 1999 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

Morphological evidence for the `implantation window' in human luminal endometrium

S.A. Sarani1,2, M. Ghaffari-Novin2,5, M.A. Warren2,6, P. Dockery3 and I.D. Cooke4

1 Department of Anatomy, Medical University of Zahedan, PO Box 98135–396 Zahedan, Iran, 2 Department of Biomedical Science, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, S10 2TN, UK, 3 Department of Anatomy, University of Cork, Ireland, 4 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Jessop Hospital, Sheffield S3 7RE, UK, and 5 Reproductive Biology, Biotechnology and Infertility Research Centre, Tehran, Iran

Endometrial tissue was taken from 21 normal fertile women (aged 18–40 years) between 4 and 13 days after the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge. Systematic random samples of luminal epithelium were taken for both light and electron microscopy and examined morphometrically. Throughout the luteal phase there were remarkably few changes in the volume fraction of nucleus, mitochondria, rough endoplasmic reticulum and `vesicular system' to cell. Nuclear profile dimensions and cell height also did not change over time. Cell and organelle volume (estimated as volume weighted mean volume) did not change significantly, but showed numerically smallest values on day LH + 13. However the ratio of desmosomes to whole cell and both arithmetic mean thickness and harmonic mean thickness of basement membrane were minimal at the time when implantation would be most likely to occur, i.e. ~6 days after the LH peak. Therefore it appears that while some morphometric parameters in human luminal epithelial cells change little during the luteal phase, specific cellular changes occur to the basement membrane and desmosomes which may facilitate embryo implantation. These changes occurred around day LH+ 6 and may be a morphological representation of the `implantation window'.

Key words: basement membrane/human/implantation/luminal epithelium/morphometry

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