Invasiveness of human endometrial stromal cells is promoted by decidualization and by trophoblast-derived signals.

Background: Extensive invasion of the maternal decidua by extravillous trophoblast is considered of critical importance for implantation and placentation in humans, the decidua being viewed as a passively invaded tissue. In this study, we examined whether decidual cells might contribute to the highly dynamic processes at the fetal-maternal interface by active movement.

Methods: Primary endometrial stromal cells (ESCs) or the telomerase-immortalized ESC line, St-T1b, was induced to decidualize or was left undifferentiated. The AC-1M88 cell line served as a model for extravillous trophoblast cells. Motility of ESCs and trophoblast cells was monitored in transwell invasion and migration assays under co-culture conditions. Secretion of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) was assessed by gelatin zymography.

Results: AC-1M88 cell invasiveness was unaffected by the presence of ESCs, irrespective of their decidualization status. Surprisingly, decidualized ESCs were significantly more invasive than undifferentiated cells, and this invasive activity was strongly enhanced when cells were cultured in direct contact with AC-1M88 cells. Conditioned medium from AC-1M88 cells also stimulated migration and invasion of ESCs. Secretion of MMP-2 and -9 by ESCs was increased upon decidualization.

Conclusions: Enhanced motility and invasive capacity of decidualized ESCs in the presence of trophoblastic cells lead us to hypothesize a major contribution of the decidua in encapsulating the early conceptus and supporting subsequent trophoblast invasion. Our findings thus suggest a far more active role of the decidua in the implantation process than hitherto recognized.