Figure 1.

(A) Endometrial gland: indirect immunofluorescence of nuclear pore complex proteins that are highly enriched in NCSs (one is highlighted by an arrow) on one of the ten random optical fields analyzed for the anterior body region of one uterus (red in B). A maximum projection of 22 0.3μm-thick optical sections is shown. Inset: twofold magnification of a single optical section from the boxed area above; note, in that optical plane only two of the three NCSs seen in the maximum projection are visible (i.e., the NCS in the lower right corner is situated on a different plane), and note the outline of the nuclear boundary by the individual pore complexes.

(B) Regional prevalence of NCSs in the uterus. % EECs with NCSs in six regions of 9 uteri (colors correspond to the following numbers in Table 2: blue = 1, light green = 2, purple =3, light blue = 4, orange = 5, red = 6, brown = 7, green = 8, yellow = 9). The medians ± interquartile range (IQR) are indicated for each region, as is the significant difference between the lower uterine segment and the other five regions (p = 0.008, Wilcoxon signed ranks test).

(C) Prevalence of NCSs in the endometrial layers. The distribution of NCSs (left) and Glands (right) between three equal layers (basal, middle, and luminal) of the endometrium of one uterus (yellow in B) is indicated for all regions together (first column each) and for each individual region (abbreviations as in B). The numbers correspond to 100% of each column. Note the reduced amount of NCSs in the basal layer compared to the middle and luminal ones.