Reappraisal of the Ultrastructure of the Human Endometrial Glandular Cell

Abstract

A survey of the ultrastructure of histologically normal endometrial biopsies from 30 women at various stages of the menstrual cycle was made. The nucleus and nucleolus showed morphological variations in the different phases of the cycle which could be correlated with the changing metabolic needs of the cytoplasm. During the ovulatory phase, glycogen, giant mitochondria and nucleolar basket formation were observed and the functional morphology of the latter two organelles is discussed. The secretory phase was characterized by the apocrine and merocrine secretion of glycogen and glycoprotein, as well as by age changes and ultimate cellular breakdown.

The Cyclical Variation in the Percentage of Ciliated Cells in the Normal Human Endometrium

“…Although originally believed to occur only in pathological conditions (Novak & Rutledge, 1948), ciliated cells are now accepted as being present also during the normal menstrual cycle (Schueller, 1968(Schueller, , 1973 Armstrong, More, McSeveney & Chatfield, 1973). The dynamics of the population of such cells during the menstrual cycle, however, is a matter of dispute.…”

Characteristics of the uterine luminal surface epithelium at preovulatory and preimplantation stages in the marmoset monkey

“…At this stage, the relatively undifferentiated uterine epithelial cells proliferated and appeared to develop luminal cell organelles required for later phases. The large amount of euchromatin contained within uterine luminal epithelium during the proliferative phase suggested that gene transcription activity was occurring (Armstrong et al, 1973;Verma, 1983;Cornillie et al, 1985).…”

“…These large, complex structures have not been described previously in the uterine luminal epithelium of primates. Bearing some resemblance to OCBs, lysosome-like structures, given a variety of names such as "phagolysosomes," "autophagosomes," and "granulated bodies" have been identified in the primate glandular epithelium (Armstrong et al, 1973;Verma, 1983;Smith et al, 1987;Kaiserman-Abramof, 1989;Rune et al, 1992). The OCBs described here differed from these lysosome-like structures in abundance and size.…”

“…Given the similarities between the compositions of OCBs and the lysosome-like structures, it is likely that these giant intracellular bodies may be involved in cytoplasmic turnover and cell breakdown (Armstrong et al, 1973). Because the marmoset is a nonmenstruating primate, these OCBs may be involved in the removal and Fig.…”

The Fine Structure of the Human Endometrial Ciliated Cell

“…Several authors have described their light micro¬ scopic appearances (Hamperl, 1950;Schueller, 1961Schueller, , 1968. The ultrastructure of the ciliated cells has been largely ignored, however, in favour of its more numerous counterpart-the glandular cell (Bordi et al, 1959;Armstrong et al, 1973). The cyclical variations in frequency of the ciliated cell have been determined (Masterton et al, 1975), but their function and fate are unknown.…”