Primary Decidual Zone Formation Requires Scribble For Pregnancy Success In Mice

Published November 2019 | Nature Communications

One of the early events following blastocyst implantation occurs when stromal cells differentiate into decidual cells that support embryo development. In mice and rats, this process begins in an area called the primary decidual zone (PDZ).

Sudhansu K. Dey, PhD, and colleagues at Cincinnati Children’s have devoted years to studying the genetic and cellular mechanisms at work in this early stage of pregnancy and have identified key genes involved in the process. Now, Dey and co-authors Jia Yuan and Xiaofei Sun report another critical genetic finding.

The Scribble (Scrib) gene produces a protein that’s involved in various functions including cell polarity, cell adhesion, and cell proliferation. Dey and colleagues reveal that Scrib interacts with Vangl2 during pregnancy to contribute to embryo development in an unexpected way.

Other studies have shown that Scrib expressed in the epithelium has not been essential to successful pregnancy. However, this paper shows that Scrib expression rapidly increases in stromal cells around the embryo after attachment and is critical for PDZ initiation and formation. This process contributes to crypt-glands assembly that leads to pregnancy success.

“Our observations of marginal adverse effects on pregnancy success after epithelial deletion of Scrib as opposed to severe subfertility with the deletion of stromal Scrib suggest that Scrib has an important and unique role in the stromal compartment in early pregnancy,” the co-authors say.

One next step for this line of research is to determine whether the PDZ formed during embryo implantation in mice also forms during implantation in humans.