Regulation Of FUT7 And SLe～x Expressed On The Human Uterine Endometrial Epithelial Cells By Progesterone

Implantation of human and rodents is a complex developmental process that is initiated by adhesion of the embryo to the endometrial mucosa. Many factors such as hormones, cytokines and oligosaccharides contribute to this process. The trophoblasts of the blastocyst establishing contact to the free surface of the uterine epithelium is critical for successful implantation of mammalian embryos.Sialyl lewis x (sLe~x) is fucosylated oligosaccharide on the surface of cells. sLe~x determinant on leukocytes serves as a ligand for selectin family, and the selectin-carbohydrate interaction is considered to play important roles in inflammatory reaction and leukemic infiltration. Recent reports show at the maternal-fetal interface, human uterine epithelial cells express oligosaccharide-based selectin ligands and trophoblasts bound to ligand-expressing uterine epithelial cells during the window of receptivity. sLe~x, the ligand for L-selectin, plays a key role during molecular recognition .Recently it was found that fucosyltransferase(FUT) had several subtypes which are involved in the synthesis of Lewis oligosaccharides. Among them, the substrate specificity of FUT7 is very strict , which transfers fucose only to the GlcNAc residue of the sialylated type-2 chain .Thus, FUT7 can synthesis only the sLe~x epitope.The previous results from our laboratory suggest that FUT1,FUT4 and FUT9 genes are obviously expressed on human urerine endometrium and up-regulated by progesterone. Ovary hormones control the expression of Lewis oligosaccharide at the transcriptional level. Up to now, on human...