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Immunohistological Localization of the Human Endometrial Secretory Protein Pregnancy-Associated Endometrial ₁-Globulin, an Insulin-Like Growth Factor-Binding Protein, During the Menstrual Cycle^*

Departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (G.T.W., S.C.B.), Surgery (R.F.L.J.), and Biochemistry (S.C.B.), University of Leicester Leicester, LE2 7LX United Kingdom

Address requests for reprints to: Dr. S. C. Bell, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Leicester, Clinical Sciences Building, Leicester Royal Infirmary, P.O. Box 65, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, LE2 7LX United Kingdom.

Pregnancy-associated endometrial ₁-globulin (₁-PEG), a 29,000 mol wt insulin-like growth factor-binding protein, is the major secretory protein of the human endometrium from the latter half of the first trimester to the end of pregnancy. It is also produced and secreted by nonpregnant endometrial tissue, especially during the late secretory phase of the menstrual cycle. We studied the localization of this protein in the endometrium during different phases of the cycle using immunohistochemistry with monoclonal antibodies. Immunostaining was first observed in the midsecretory phase and was most consistently detected during the late secretory phase, during which it was principally associated with stromal cell populations. These cells were localized initially surrounding spiral arteries and subsequently also in the subluminal epithelial region of the endometrium. These results suggest that ₁-PEG synthesis is principally associated with the process of stromal cell differentiation, i.e. predecidualization. However, the presence of ₁-PEG was not directly correlated with the presence of mature predecidual cells, suggesting that its synthesis is not an inherant feature of this cell.

^* This work was supported by a Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) grant (to S.C.B.)

Received March 29, 1988.

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