Integrins expressed on the surface of human endometrial stromal cells derived from a female patient experiencing spontaneous abortion.

Here, as a basic study in revealing the correlation between extracellular matrix components and spontaneous abortion, we defined the types of integrins expressed on the surface of endometrial stromal (ES) cells retrieved from the uterus of a patient experiencing spontaneous abortion. For these, the types of integrin subunits in the ES cells retrieved from a woman with spontaneous abortion were identified at the transcriptional and translational levels, and functional assay was conducted for confirming the combinations of integrin α and β subunits. Among the genes encoding 25 integrin subunits, significantly high transcription was seen in integrins α, α, α, α, α, α, β, β, and β. Translation of integrins α, α, α, α, and β on the cell surface was detected in almost all ES cells, whereas integrins α, α, β, and β were expressed translationally only in some ES cells. Subsequently, ES cells showed significantly increased adhesion to collagen I, laminin, fibronectin, and vitronectin, and functional blocking of integrin α, α, α, and α significantly inhibited adhesion to these molecules. These results demonstrated that active heterodimers composed of integrins αβ, αβ, αβ, and αβ were co-localized on the surface of ES cells derived from a patient experiencing spontaneous abortion.