[Estrogen and progesterone receptors in the decidual tissue of women administered prostaglandins and experiencing spontaneous abortion].

A study was made of the content of estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER and PR, respectively) in the cytosol and nuclei of the decidual tissue of women in induced and spontaneous abortion at 7-12 week pregnancy. Abortion was done surgically (control group) and in preliminary cervical dilatation with the help of intravaginal suppositories with a synthetic prostaglandin analog of E1-16.16-dimethyltrans-delta 2-PGE1 (ONO-802) group or laminaria. The level of ER in the cytosol and nuclei of the decidual tissue of the control group was twice as low as that of PR, and the ER/PR ratio in cell fractions as well as in general cell receptors was 0.58 +/- 0.09, 0.42 +/- 0.07 and 0.56 +/- 0.07, respectively. The suppositories with ONO-802 caused a statistically significant decrease in the PR content in each of the cell fractions and cytoplasmic ER resulting in an increase in the ER/PR ratio to 0.87 +/- 0.06 (P less than 0.05) in the cytosol, 0.09 +/- 0.24 (P less than 0.05) in the nuclei, and 0.86 +/- 0.8 (P less than 0.05) in the total cell. A decrease in the PR level in both cell fractions and the ER level in the fraction of the nuclei with an acute increase in the content of cytoplasmic ER was marked in spontaneous abortion. The ER/PR ratio also rose to ER and was 1.98 +/- +/- 0.2 (P less than 0.001) in the cytosol and 1.02 +/- 0.16 (P less than 0.05) in the total cell. It was concluded that an absolute and/or relative decrease in the PR level plays an important role in mechanism of abortion.