Unexplained infertility patients present the mostly impaired levels of progesterone receptors: Prospective observational study

Stamatios Petousis, Yannis Prapas, Chrysoula Margioula‐Siarkou, Chrysoula Margioula-Siarkou, Konstantinos Ravanos, Stefanos Milias, George Mavromatidis, Ioannis Kalogiannidis, Costas Haitoglou, Apostolos Athanasiadis, Nikolaos Prapas, Νικόλαος Πράπας, D. Rousso, David Rousso
American journal of reproductive immunology (New York, N.Y. : 1989) · 2018 · vol. 79(6) , pp. e12828 · doi:10.1111/aji.12828 · PMID:29450939 · W2789735378
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 8 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This study found that women with unexplained infertility exhibit significantly lower endometrial expression of progesterone receptors compared to fertile controls.

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

Abstract

PROBLEM: Τo assess the endometrial expression of progesterone receptors in various subgroups of infertile women during implantation window. ΜETHODS: A prospective observational study was performed during March 2013-February 2017. Infertile women were categorized to those with tubal factor, ovarian failure, endometriosis or unexplained infertility. Endometrial biopsy was obtained on 7th-8th postovulatory day. Total progesterone receptors' PR(A + B) and type-B receptors' (PR-B) expression were compared between all categories of infertile and fruitful controls. RESULTS: There were overall 30 patients with tubal factor infertility (group 1), 30 with ovarian failure (group 2), 20 with endometriosis (group 3) and 20 with unexplained infertility (group 4). The control group consisted of 30 fertile patients. Patients with unexplained infertility presented the lowest levels of epithelial endometrial expression both regarding PR(A + B) and PR-B receptors. PgR(A + B) h-score in luminal epithelial cells was 106.4 ± 14.7 for cases with unexplained infertility vs 219.7 ± 15.8 for controls (P < .001). Similarly, PgR(A + B) h-score in glandular epithelial cells was 109.7 ± 13.9 vs 220.1 ± 17.2 (P < .001). Relative remarks were made for type-B progesterone receptors. CONCLUSION: Εndometrial expression of progesterone receptors is impaired in women with unexplained infertility. Therapeutic strategies targeting on improving progesterone receptors' expression may significantly affect final reproductive outcome.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Infertility, Female Receptors, Progesterone Adult Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometrium Endometrium Epithelial Cells Epithelial Cells Female Humans Infertility, Female Ovarian Diseases Ovarian Diseases Receptors, Progesterone

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 (28)

Cited by (8)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-04T01:30:01.192114+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-04T00:00:01.174412+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:20:01.354358+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK