Figure 4

The effect of gestation NAPE-PLD immunoreactivity. NAPE-PLD immunostaining is present throughout the first trimester in both the trophoblast (upper panels) and decidua (lower panels). In the trophoblast, the majority of the staining was confined to the cytotrophoblast and syncytiotrophoblast layers, with the staining being preferentially observed in the cytotrophoblast layer when compared to the syncytiotrophoblast layer. Intense nuclear staining was occasionally observed in syncytial knots (SK) whilst only the occasional mesenchymal fibroblast showed NAPE-PLD immunoreactivity. Intense immunoreactivity was observed in some of the decidualised stromal fibroblasts. The intensity of decidual cell staining was variable and reached a maximum at week 10 but was essentially absent in the stromal fibroblast by week 12. Images were taken at 100× magnification. Bar = 50 μm.