Co-Orelation of Histological Dating and Glycogen Content by Histochemical Stain during Various Phases of Menstrual Cycle in Primary Infertility

Glycogen and its products of metabolism are considered to be the most important and direct source of nutrient for the early conceptus. The premenstrual biopsies were taken from 100 women with primary infertility whose male partners had normal semenograms. The biopsies were then subjected to Haematoxylin and Eosin (H & E) and Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS) staining with and without diastase to study histological and histochemical changes particularly glycogen content in the endometrium respectively. Histolomorphologic spectrum of endometrium on H & E stained sections revealed early proliferative phase (4%), late proliferative phase (7%) and early secretory phase (7%), mid secretory phase (33%) and late secretory phase (49%). PAS staining with or without diastase for glycogen was performed and glycogen content, as demonstrated by magenta color, was graded from + to ++++. Glycogen content was observed to be “+” to “++” in proliferative phase, where as in secretory phase, it varied from “++” to “+++”. Glycogen was confirmed by treatment with diastase enzyme, after that PAS stain gave negative staining, i.e. loss of magenta color as glycogen was digested by diastase. Glycogen deficiency was observed in 24.7% of secretory phase endometrium of infertile women. Depletion of glycogen results in inadequate preparation of endometrium at the time of implantation, and hence, may be one of the causes of infertility.