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However, its most prominent time is during the early stages of pregnancy, during implantation. Its function as a surrounding tissue is replaced by the definitive placenta. However, some elements of the decidualization remain throughout pregnancy. [30] The compacta and spongiosa layers are still observable beneath the decidua in pregnancy.
The endometrium is central, echogenic (detectable using ultrasound scanners), and has an average thickness of 6.7 mm. During pregnancy, the glands and blood vessels in the endometrium further increase in size and number.
The decidua is the modified mucosal lining of the uterus (that is, modified endometrium) that forms every month, in preparation for pregnancy. It is shed off each month when there is no fertilized egg to support. [1] The decidua is under the influence of progesterone. Endometrial cells become highly characteristic.
Decidualization is a process that results in significant changes to cells of the endometrium in preparation for, and during, pregnancy. This includes morphological and functional changes (the decidual reaction) to endometrial stromal cells (ESCs), the presence of decidual white blood cells (leukocytes), and vascular changes to maternal arteries.
The uterus or womb is the major female reproductive organ. The uterus provides mechanical protection, nutritional support, and waste removal for the developing embryo (weeks 1 to 8) and fetus (from week 9 until the delivery). In addition, contractions in the muscular wall of the uterus are important in pushing out the fetus at the time of birth.
Hormones produced in early pregnancy stimulate the uterine glands to secrete a number of substances to give nutrition and protection to the embryo and fetus, and the fetal membranes. [1] These secretions are known as histiotroph, alternatively histotroph, and also as uterine milk. [1] [2] Important uterine milk proteins are glycodelin-A, and ...
During early pregnancy, the amnionic epithelium is sparsely covered in microvilli, which increase in number throughout pregnancy. [4] The function of this microvillous surface is associated with a densely-packed glycocalix with anionic binding sites; these are thought to be involved with intra-amnionic lipid synthesis. [ 4 ]
The gestational sac is spherical in shape, and is usually located in the upper part (fundus) of the uterus.By approximately nine weeks of gestational age, due to folding of the trilaminar germ disc, the amniotic sac expands and occupy the majority of the volume of the gestational sac, eventually reducing the extraembryonic coelom (the gestational sac or the chorionic cavity) to a thin layer ...