Figure 1.

(A) Morphology of in-vitro decidualized endometrial stromal cells from fertile women treated with (a–c) or without (d–f) 0.5 mM of 8 Br-cAMP for 3 days in the presence of either cetrorelix acetate (b, e) or buserelin acetate (c, f).

Endometrial stromal cells underwent morphological changes from bipolar fibroblasts into polygonal decidual cells in the presence of 8 Br-cAMP while untreated cells retained a fibroblast-like, spindle shape appearance irrespective of the presence of GnRH analogues. (B) Time-dependent secretion of PRL and IGFBP-1 in endometrial stromal cells from fertile women (n = 3) in response to 0.5 mM of 8-Br-cAMP for 9 days with or without GnRH analogues. The PRL and IGFBP-1 secretion by stromal cells into supernatants was measured every 3 days and normalized to total protein contents. The presence of GnRH analogues neither hindered the decidual reaction nor did it induce decidualization in the absence of 8 Br-cAMP. Magnification ×20.