Fig. 4

Endometrial expression of epithelial receptivity markers. Immunohistochemistry for E-cadherin (a to g) and β-catenin (h to n). Positive staining was observed in glandular epithelium and stroma (brown and arrows), which was counterstained with hematoxylin (blue nuclei). (a and h) Human skin cancer tissue was used as the positive control. (b and i) Human endometrium with no primary antibody served as the negative control. (c and j) Ovulatory women. (b and k) untreated anovulatory infertile women. (e and l) CC-treated anovulatory infertile women. (f and m) rFSH-treated women. (g) Optical density analysis of E-cadherin in the glandular epithelium and stroma showed no significant differences in expression between groups. (n) Optical density analysis for β-catenin showed a significantly lower expression (*P < 0.05) in the glandular epithelium of the rFSH-treated group compared with ovulatory and CC-treated women. GE = glandular epithelium; LE = luminal epithelium; S = stroma; OP = ovulatory women; CC = anovulatory infertile patients treated with clomiphene citrate; rFSH = anovulatory infertile patients treated with the recombinant follicle stimulating hormone; UI = anovulatory untreated patients. (Bar = 100 μm)