Effect of cyclooxygenase on "window of implantation" in mouse.

The major determinants of uterine receptivity are the ovarian progesterone and estrogen hormones, respectively. Different prostaglandins (PGs) have been elucidated in reproduction and also in this process of implantation in various ways. The blastocyst undergoes implantation on the uterine epithelium in defined hormone prepared period known as "implantation window". However, any definitive role of PGs in the window of receptivity remains elusive. It is demonstrated herein that selective COX1 inhibitor (SC560) and selective COX2 inhibitor (nimesulide) separately had no significant effect on blastocyst implantation while combination of both inhibitors in lower dose showed partial delay in implantation by more than 24h and became implanted beyond the window of implantation, i.e. on D6 but these implantation sites were significantly reduced on D10 and the pregnancy is lost in significant number. However, the higher doses of inhibitors in combination completely prevented implantation. Embryos retrieved from these treated mice showed significantly lower number of embryonic cells (77+/-3.3 and 65.2+/-3.9) than the optimum number of embryonic cells (93.4+/-2.6). The lower doses of both the inhibitors reduced uterine PGE2 and PGI2 content on D5 but did not inhibit as efficiently as higher doses. In addition, our immunohistochemistry result shows that there was no COX1 and COX2 localization on D5 of treated mice but COX2 begins expressing on D6 like normal D5 of pregnancy. Therefore, we can conclude that embryos implanted after the delay showed defective post-implantation development because of lower number of embryonic cells of implanting blastocyst and implantation beyond the proper time in window of receptivity.