Modulation of the endocannabinoid system in viable and non-viable first trimester pregnancies by pregnancy-related hormones

Table 4 Immunohistochemical localisation and staining intensities of the various components of the endocannabinoid system in the first trimester trophoblast and decidua.

Antigen	Cell type	Surgical termination	Medical termination	Spontaneous miscarriage
CB1	Syncytiotrophoblast Cytotrophoblast (Histoscore) Mesenchymal core (Histoscore) Decidua (Histoscore)	+/++ ++ (161.0 ± 4.77) - (3.3 ± 0.40) ++ (66.6 ± 3.69)	+ + (113.9 ± 7.48) + (15.5 ± 2.25) ++ (36.4 ± 5.57)	+ + (79.8 ± 7.91)* - (8.8 ± 0.96)* + (15.0 ± 2.04)*
CB2	Syncytiotrophoblast Cytotrophoblast (Histoscore) Mesenchymal core (Histoscore) Decidua (Histoscore)	+ + (96.5 ± 11.01) -/+ (9.0 ± 1.96) + (14.8 ±1.59)	+/++ + (114.3 ± 16.40) -/+ (14.3 ± 2.4) +/++ (68.8 ± 8.04)	++ ++ (233.5 ± 5.27)* ++ (223.5 ± 5.27) +/++ (78.7 ± 6.06**)^ns
NAPE-PLD	Syncytiotrophoblast Cytotrophoblast (Histoscore) Mesenchymal core (Histoscore) Decidua (Histoscore)	-/+ + (9.4 ± 2.77) - (1.7 ± 0.56) -/+ (4.9 ± 0.51)	+/++ + (32.0 ± 2.45) - (2.0 ± 0.23) + (11.2 ± 1.62)	-/+ +/++ (14.2 ± 2.68)^ns - (1.3 ± 0.38)^ns -/+ (4.6 ± 0.69)*
FAAH	Syncytiotrophoblast Cytotrophoblast (Histoscore) Mesenchymal core (Histoscore) Decidua (Histoscore)	+ -/+ (45.5 ± 7.08) ++ (42.0 ± 6.02) + (13.9 ± 2.34)	+/++ ++ (127.8 ± 6.26) + (22.7 ± 5.03) -/+ (23.2 ± 6.38)	+ + (105.2 ± 7.74)^ns - (2.6 ± 0.59)* ++ (55.3 ± 4.00)**

Scoring system: (-) = absent; (+) = staining visible; (-/+) = staining occasionally absent;
(++) = stronger staining. The histoscore value for each antigen is shown as (mean ± sem) under each tissue that it represents. Each histoscore consists of 10 random fields/slide, for 10 matched samples each of surgical termination, medical abortion and spontaneous miscarriages taken from weeks 7 and 8 of gestation, as described in the Materials & Methods section. Data in bold are significantly different to respective surgical termination tissue and *P<0.01;**P<0.001; One-way ANOVA with Bonferroni's ad hoc post-test when compared to the medical abortion group.

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