Ricerc@Sapienza

Fertility is a key element of reproductive health and infertility is recognized as a global public health issue by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Moreover spontaneous pregnancy loss is a surprisingly common occurrence, with approximately 15% of all clinically recognized pregnancies resulting in pregnancy failure. Two or more consecutive pregnancy losses before 20weeks of gestation is defined as recurrent spontaneous miscarriage(RSM) and it represents a relevant health issue too. The failure of implantation remains an unsolved problem in reproductive medicine and is considered as a major cause of infertility in healthy women. The causes are generally recognized, including chromosomal, anatomic, endocrinological, infectious, and auto-immunologic abnormalities. However, almost 50% of such cases remains unknown. The acquisition of receptivity by the uterine epithelium and the expression of the invasive phenotype by the trophoblast involve some of the molecular events of epithelial-mesenchymal transformation including the expression of developmentally regulated complex repertoire of cell-cell adhesion receptors , providing huge potential for both recognition and signaling specificity. The association of cadherins with catenins is essential for calcium-dependent intercellular adhesiveness and they're are also of central importance for the establishment of the epithelial phenotype and for the prevention of invasiveness . In the present study we will investigate the expression of beta-catenin E-cadherin and K-cadherin in the different phases of menstrual cycle comparing infertile patients, patients with recurrent miscarrages ,as well as healthy fertile ones. Therefore we assume that their possible altered expression may be related to a defect in embryonic receptivity and thus infertility.