Endometrial-Myometrial Interface: Relationship to Adenomyosis and Changes in Pregnancy

A. S. Uduwela, Uduwela AS, M. A. K. Perera, M A Perera, Perera MA, L Aiqing, Aiqing Li, Aiqing L, I S Fraser, Fraser Is
Obstetrical & gynecological survey · 2000 · vol. 55(6) , pp. 390–400 · doi:10.1097/00006254-200006000-00025 · PMID:10841317 · W2071994718
review OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 90 in-corpus citations
Full text JSON View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-06 ⓘ

This paper describes the endometrial-myometrial interface, its unique features, its disruption during pregnancy and adenomyosis, and the roles of sex steroids and local mediators.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

The endometrial-myometrial interface (EMI) is an important region of the human uterus, which has attracted little research attention. This mucosal-muscular interface has characteristic features when compared with other similar interfaces in the human body. It lacks an intervening tissue layer and as a result, the endometrium sits directly on the myometrium rendering it vulnerable to invasion by the endometrium. Both endometrium and myometrium are sensitive to sex steroids, and their structure and function depend to a large extent on the sex hormonal milieu. Endometrium, which forms one border of the EMI, is a complex tissue consisting of several polarized microenvironments. At a cellular level, sex steroids interact with local mediators secreted by a variety of cell types and are important in maintaining the complex structure and function of the endometrium. Basal endometrium contains prominent aggregates of leukocytes that may be important in controlling local cell growth and function. Myometrium also has a distinct zonal anatomy. The recently described junctional zone differs structurally and functionally from the outer myometrium, although these functions are not yet clearly understood. Embryologically, it originates from müllerian ducts together with endometrium, whereas the outer myometrium has a non-müllerian origin. During early pregnancy, the EMI is disturbed by invading trophoblast. Alterations of myometrial intercellular matrix proteins together with expression of appropriate receptors by the trophoblast seem to regulate this unique interaction. The EMI also is disrupted in adenomyosis. The sequence of events taking place at the EMI during development of this pathology is still debated. Target Audience Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Family Physicians Learning Objectives After completion of this article, the reader will be able to describe the endometrial-myometrial interface, including its structural and functional features, to summarize the embryologic development of the uterus and specifically the endometrial-myometrial interface, and to list examples of clinical situations where the endometrial-myometrial interface is disrupted and how these interactions are regulated.
Full text 2,368 characters · extracted from oa-doi-fallback · click to expand
Endometrial-Myometrial Interface: Relationship to Adenomyosis and Changes in Pregnancy - A. S. Uduwela - M. A. K. Perera - Li Aiqing - I. S. Fraser The endometrial-myometrial interface (EMI) is an important region of the human uterus, which has attracted little research attention. This mucosal-muscular interface has characteristic features when compared with other similar interfaces in the human body. It lacks an intervening tissue layer and as a result, the endometrium sits directly on the myometrium rendering it vulnerable to invasion by the endometrium. Both endometrium and myometrium are sensitive to sex steroids, and their structure and function depend to a large extent on the sex hormonal milieu. Endometrium, which forms one border of the EMI, is a complex tissue consisting of several polarized microenvironments. At a cellular level, sex steroids interact with local mediators secreted by a variety of cell types and are important in maintaining the complex structure and function of the endometrium. Basal endometrium contains prominent aggregates of leukocytes that may be important in controlling local cell growth and function. Myometrium also has a distinct zonal anatomy. The recently described junctional zone differs structurally and functionally from the outer myometrium, although these functions are not yet clearly understood. Embryologically, it originates from müllerian ducts together with endometrium, whereas the outer myometrium has a non-müllerian origin. During early pregnancy, the EMI is disturbed by invading trophoblast. Alterations of myometrial intercellular matrix proteins together with expression of appropriate receptors by the trophoblast seem to regulate this unique interaction. The EMI also is disrupted in adenomyosis. The sequence of events taking place at the EMI during development of this pathology is still debated. Target Audience Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Family Physicians Learning Objectives After completion of this article, the reader will be able to describe the endometrial-myometrial interface, including its structural and functional features, to summarize the embryologic development of the uterus and specifically the endometrial-myometrial interface, and to list examples of clinical situations where the endometrial-myometrial interface is disrupted and how these interactions are regulated.

Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below. Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy (via DOI) is the canonical version.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

⚙ Ask this paper AI returns verbatim quotes from the full text · source: oa-doi-fallback ⓘ

Answers must be backed by verbatim quotes from this paper's full text. Hallucinated quotes are dropped automatically; if no verbatim passage answers the question, we say so. How this works

Condition tags

endometriosisadenomyosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometrium Myometrium Pregnancy Uterine Diseases Endometriosis Endometrium Female Humans Myometrium Pregnancy Uterine Diseases

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (56)

Cited by (50)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-08-04T06:16:37.499272+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:13:36.046895+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-06-02T02:00:03.124865+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK