title: Understanding and improving endometrial receptivity.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  For a successful pregnancy, the synchronic coordination between the embryonic development and the endometrial status is crucial. The endometrium is a hormonally regulated organ that is nonadhesive to embryos throughout most of the menstrual cycle in humans. Endometrial receptivity refers to a hormone-limited period in which the endometrial tissue acquires a functional and transient ovarian steroid-dependent status allowing blastocyst implantation and therefore pregnancy initiation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our group has developed the endometrial receptivity array (ERA), a customized array based on the expression of 238 genes coupled to a computational predictor capable of diagnosing a functionally receptive endometrium regardless of its histological appearance. Clinical results obtained in our laboratory demonstrate the diagnostic and therapeutic efficiency of the ERA test in patients with implantation failure, allowing the personalization of the optimal day for embryo transfer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To keep improving the global knowledge of endometrial receptivity stage, new high-throughput techniques like RNA-seq or genome-wide association studies will be crucial in the near future. Also the identification of new biomarkers of endometrial receptivity that could be assessed by noninvasive methods has become a challenging goal to help diagnose the endometrial status to increase implantation rates and pregnancy outcomes in patients undergoing assisted reproductive treatments.
authors.affiliation: aIgenomix, Parc Cientific Valencia University, Paterna bFundación Instituto Valenciano de Infertilidad (FIVI), Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Valencia University, Instituto Universitario IVI/INCLIVA, Valencia, Spain cDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, Stanford University, California, USA *Dr Jose A. Miravet-Valenciano and Dr Alejandro Rincon-Bertolin are considered co-first authors and contributed equally to this work. †Dr Felipe Vilella and Dr Carlos Simon are considered co-last authors and contributed equally to this work.
authors.forename: Jose A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Miravet-Valenciano
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rincon-Bertolin
authors.forename: Felipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vilella
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Simon
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000502:physiology*; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000378:metabolism; D010064:Embryo Implantation / Q000502:physiology*; D004624:Embryo Transfer / Q000379:methods*; D004717:Endometrium / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011247:Pregnancy
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D018076:DNA, Complementary