Credit: Cincinnati Children's
The confocal microscopic image of a mouse uterus on the left shows normal formation of embryo implantation crypts, with healthy uterine glands extending from the uterine wall of a mouse that expresses a gene and its protein (Vangl2) critical to this process. In the image at right, the uterus of a mouse lacking the gene and protein demonstrates abnormal crypt formation, with withered glands obstructing what otherwise would be implantation crypts. Scientists from Cincinnati Children’s report their research results Feb. 9 in Nature Communications.