Imaging the dynamics of uterine contractions in early pregnancy

The myometrium or smooth muscle of the uterus contracts throughout the life of the organ. Uterine muscle contractility is essential for reproductive processes including sperm and embryo transport, and during the uterine cycle to remove menstrual effluent or estrus debris. Even still, uterine contractions have primarily only been studied in the context of preterm labor. This is partly due to a lack of methods for studying the contractile characteristics of the uterine muscle in the intact organ. Here, we describe an imaging-based method to evaluate the contractility of both the longitudinal and circular muscles of the uterus in the cycling stages and in early pregnancy. By transforming the image-based data into 3D spatiotemporal contractility maps, we calculate waveform characteristics of muscle contractions, including amplitude, frequency, wavelength, and velocity. We report that the native organ is highly contractile during the progesterone-dominant diestrus stage of the cycle when compared to the estrogen-dominant proestrus and estrus stages. We also observed correlations between contractility during pre-implantation stages of pregnancy and observed embryo movement patterns. During the first phase of embryo movement when clustered embryos move towards the middle of the uterine horn, uterine contractions are dynamic and non-uniform between different segments of the uterine horn. In the second phase of embryo movement, contractions are more uniform and rhythmic throughout the uterine horn. Finally, when our method is applied to Lpar3 mutant uteri that display faster embryo movement, we observe global and regional increases in contractility. Our method provides a means to understand the wave characteristics of uterine smooth muscle in response to modulators and in genetic mutants. Better understanding uterine contractility in the early pregnancy stages is critical for the advancement of artificial reproductive technologies and a possibility of modulating embryo movement during clinical embryo transfers.