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Specific nuclear staining for progesterone receptor (PR) was detected by immunocytochemistry in human granulosa cells (GCs) obtained from in vitro fertilization protocols. The percent of PR-positive cells (60% to 80%) remained unchanged during 7 days of culture in media containing fetal calf serum, in the absence or presence of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) or the progesterone antagonist RU486. Progesterone (P) production by GCs cultured on extracellular matrix from bovine corneal endothelial cells was stimulated by hCG and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). However, addition of RU486 or human relaxin had no effect on control, hCG-, or PGE2-stimulated P production. Thus, the receptor data are consistent with an autocrine action of P in luteinizing GCs, but initial experiments in cell culture did not define a role for P or relaxin in modulating luteal steroidogenesis.

Immunocytochemical, biochemical, and histologic analysis of endometriotic lesions and endometria from rhesus macaques with endometriosis revealed several distinctions between ectopic and eutopic endometrium. In lesions, unlike endometrium, neither the mean percentages of estrogen receptor positive (ER+) cells nor the total ER content changed significantly during the menstrual cycle. In eutopic endometria, ER staining in both stromal and epithelial cells increased and decreased synchronously during the cycle, but in endometriotic lesions, such synchrony was lacking. Moreover, in lesions, unlike endometria, the percentage of ER+ cells was low in the stroma and highly variable in epithelium throughout the cycle. These data, taken together, indicate a defect in the hormonal regulation of ER in endometriotic lesions of monkeys.