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Evidence from three cohort studies on the expression of MUC16 around the time of implantation suggests it is an inhibitor of implantation

  • Reproductive Physiology and Disease
  • Published:
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To examine the expression of MUC16 in the endometrium peri-implantation period in three different cohort studies.

Methods

This was a retrospective observational cohort study. A total of 245 participants were recruited in three separate cohort studies: (1) women with recurrent miscarriage (n = 50) and fertile controls (n = 29); (2) women who had high (n = 20) or normal (n = 20) progesterone on the day of hCG trigger in ovarian stimulation cycle for IVF; and (3) women who did (n = 95) or did not (n = 31) conceive following frozen embryo transfer in HRT cycles. All subjects had archived endometrial samples precisely taken on LH+7 in natural cycles, or hCG+6 in ovarian stimulation cycles, or P+5 in HRT cycles. The H-score (median, range) of MUC16 in the luminal epithelium and glandular epithelium was determined by using immunohistochemistry.

Results

The median (range) of H-score of MUC16 in the luminal epithelium (1) in women with recurrent pregnancy loss was 23.7 (0–300), which was significantly (P < 0.05) lower than that of 118.4 (7.7–300) in fertile controls; (2) in women with elevated progesterone on the day of hCG administration (147.8, 18.0–230.1), significantly (P < 0.05) higher than that of women with normal progesterone (61.0, 2.3–205.3); (3) in women who conceived (23.1, 0–250.3), significantly (P < 0.001) lower than that in women who did not conceive (58.4, 0–300).

Conclusion

The expression of MUC16 in all three cohort studies is consistent with it being an inhibitor of implantation.

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Funding

The study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81701514), the Chinese Medical Association clinical medical research special funding (17020560725), and the Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province (2017C03022).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Liu Liu and Yangyang Wang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Reproductive Dysfunction Management of Zhejiang Province Assisted Reproduction Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 3# Qingchun East Road, Hangzhou, 310016, People’s Republic of China

    Liu Liu, Yangyang Wang, Yichao Tian, Lijuan Zhao, Qiaoqiao Chen, Mingling Wei & Songying Zhang

  2. Assisted Conception Unit, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Xiaoyan Chen & Tin Chiu Li

Authors
  1. Liu Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Songying Zhang.

Ethics declarations

This is a retrospective study based on precisely timed archived endometrial specimens collected from 4 separate earlier studies [3, 13, 18, 19] from 2 institutions, namely, Sir RunRun Shaw hospital in Hang Zhou and Prince of WalesHospital in Hong Kong. Ethical approval in the participating centers had been obtained for all these 4 studies. Subjects who participated in these studies had also provided written consent for additional studies on the endometrial specimens. Additional ethics approval to study MUC16 in these archived specimens was also obtained from the ethical committee of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Liu, L., Wang, Y., Chen, X. et al. Evidence from three cohort studies on the expression of MUC16 around the time of implantation suggests it is an inhibitor of implantation. J Assist Reprod Genet 37, 1105–1115 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-020-01764-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-020-01764-z

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