Abstract
The epithelium of the uterine lumen is the first point of contact with the blastocyst before implantation. To facilitate pregnancy, these uterine epithelial cells (UECs) undergo morphological changes specific to the receptive uterus. These changes include basal, lateral and apical alterations in the plasma membrane of UECs. This study looked at the cytoskeletal and focal adhesion-associated proteins, lasp-1 and palladin, in the uterus during early pregnancy in the rat. Two palladin isoforms, 140 kDa and 90 kDa, were analysed, with the migration-associated 140-kDa isoform increasing significantly at the time of implantation when compared with the time of fertilisation. Lasp-1 was similarly increased at this time, whilst also being located predominantly apically and laterally in the UECs, suggesting a role in the initial contact between the UECs and the blastocyst. This is the first study to investigate palladin and lasp-1 in the uterine luminal epithelium and suggests an importance for these cytoskeletal proteins in the morphological changes the UECs undergo for pregnancy to occur.