Molecular analysis of implantation

The great frontier in reproductive medicine is implantation biology. The scientific understanding of normal implantation lags behind what is known in areas such as fertilization. For obvious reasons this process is difficult to analyze. Recent investigations utilizing molecular biology approaches have scratched the surface of the interaction between the developing trophoblast and the receptive endometrium. This article describes these approaches with techniques such as serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) and complementary DNA array hybridization, which will soon reveal the key mediators of normal implantation and result in an understanding of failed implantation.