Reproductive Team Discovers Gene ‘Landing Signals’ Vital to Implantation
Newly detected communication between two genes involved in embryo implantation shows how some pregnancies fail to get a solid start, according to a reproductive research team at Cincinnati Children’s.
The earliest moments of embryo implantation at the beginning of a pregnancy involve many complex processes that must be executed precisely or the pregnancy can fail. Now reproductive sciences experts at Cincinnati Children’s have discovered another biological process critical to pregnancy success. Detailed findings were published online May 8, 2023, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The work was led by first author Yeon Sun Kim, PhD, and corresponding authors Xiaofei Sun, PhD, and Sudhansu Dey, PhD.
The team reports detecting vital landing signals being sent between two genes (HB-EGF and Vangl2) as they become expressed in higher concentrations in the uterus before implantation. In mice, HB-EGF expression begins just in the maternal uterus adjacent to the embryo a few hours before the embryo implants. This cell-to-cell communication prompts the lining of the uterus to prepare an implantation chamber, or crypt, to receive the incoming embryo.
When the signaling goes wrong, a malformed crypt results, and the embryo loses its safe place to land. From that point, a poorly attached embryo cannot receive the initial nutrients, blood vessel connections and other support it needs for ongoing growth and development.
Dey’s lab has been studying the role of Vangl2 for several years and has published several studies detailing aspects of its function (see studies in Nature Communications and PNAS). This signaling interaction with HB-EGF had not been discovered until now.
