Promotion of Angiogenesis by Human Endometrial Lymphocytes |
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| Authors: | Caroline Dunk Samantha Smith Aleah Hazan Wendy Whittle Rebecca Lee Jones |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Departments of Physiology and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Women's and Infants Health, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canadadunk@mshri.on.ca;3. Maternal and Fetal Health Research Group, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK;4. Departments of Physiology and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Women's and Infants Health, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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| Abstract: | The human endometrium is a unique tissue that undergoes dramatic monthly remodeling during the menstrual cycle in preparation for an implanting conceptus. This remodeling involves sequential proliferation and differentiation of endometrial stromal and epithelial cells, coupled with extensive angiogenesis and infiltration of a specific specialized immune cell subset. Increasing evidence points to an essential role for these maternal leukocytes in stimulating the endometrial angiogenesis, and we propose that they also play a key role in the decidual vascular transformation. Aberrant endometrial angiogenesis, decidualisation and vascular transformation is thought to underlie many pathologies of pregnancy, from infertility to the development of preeclampsia and Intra Uterine Growth Restriction. In this chapter we review the cellular processes associated with each stage of endometrial and decidual transformation, detailing the role of the immune cell populations and the angiogenic and chemotactic factors secreted by them. |
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| Keywords: | Angiogenesis Endometrium Decidua Lymphocytes Growth factors |
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