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Endocytosis in the uterine epithelium of the mouse

Histological studies have shown that the uterine luminal epithelial cells develop protrusions from their apical surfaces during preimplantation or delayed implantation stages in rats (Warren & Enders, 1964; Nilsson, 1966; Lööf, Nilsson & Toss, 1968; Psychoyos & Mandon, 1971; Nilsson, 1972), mice (Nilsson, 1962; Bergstrom & Nilsson, 1972,1973), deer (Aitken, 1975), and women (Nilsson & Nygren, 1974). The protrusions have been described as 'sea anemone-like formations' (Psychoyos & Mandon, 1971) or 'fungus-like protrusions' (Nilsson, 1972), and most investigators have suggested that they pinch off from the cells to provide an apocrine secretion for the nourishment of preimplantation embryos in the uterine lumen. However, investigations in the rat have shown that the protrusions are involved in endocytosis, not apocrine secretion (Enders & Nelson, 1973; Parr & Parr, 1974): exogenous tracers placed in the uterine lumen were quickly taken up into the large vacuoles which are frequently present in the protrusions, while later the tracers were located in multivesicular and dense bodies within the cells. Enders & Nelson (1973) have suggested that the protrusions be called pinopods. In this report we present evidence that the protrusions known to occur on mouse uterine epithelial 48 h cells also mediate endocytosis, and hence are pinopods.

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