Breakthrough in fertility treatment: Prostaglandin receptors found to promote embryo implantation

A team from Kumamoto University has uncovered a new mechanism that could revolutionize infertility care by promoting embryo implantation. The discovery focuses on prostaglandin (PG) receptors in the uterus that enhance the critical process of decidualization, which is necessary for a successful pregnancy. This finding opens the door to developing new fertility treatments that target these receptors.

Prostaglandins are bioactive lipids known for their role in body’s response to injury by causing fever and pain, but they are also crucial in reproductive processes like childbirth. Until now, the exact role prostaglandins played in embryo implantation was unclear. A research team led by Professor Yukihiko Sugimoto and Assistant Professor Tomoaki Inazumi, found that two types of prostaglandins—PGD₂ and PGE₂—produced in the uterus during the early stages of pregnancy, activate specific receptors, DP and EP4, to promote the formation of the decidual tissue that supports embryo implantation.

The team discovered that when either the DP or EP4 receptor is stimulated, decidualization is enhanced, allowing the embryo to implant more effectively, further implying that both PGD₂-DP and PGE₂-EP4 receptor pathways compensate for each other’s function. This groundbreaking discovery suggests that boosting these pathways with specialized drugs, called DP/EP4 agonists, could help women struggling with infertility due to implantation issues.

Professor Sugimoto, the leader of the research team at the Faculty of Life Sciences, Kumamoto University, remarked, “This approach may provide new possibilities for fertility treatments, offering hope to couples facing implantation challenges.”

This novel understanding of how prostaglandin receptors aid in implantation paves the way for innovative infertility therapies, potentially transforming reproductive medicine by improving the chances of pregnancy for many individuals.