Hello everyone, how are you all? Hope you all are doing well and i am too. I hope my posts are helping you in gaining knowledge and without wasting time lets dive into new thing to learn. Today we are going to see how proliferative phase looks on microscopically if endometrial curettings or endometrial biopsy or excision specimen having endometrial tissue. First of all you have to go back to menstrual cycle to understand this. Menstrual cycle on average is of 28-30 day cycle and first 12-14 days is called proliferative phase where glands will proliferative and they are in tubules(glands) which are round in shape and mitosis is seen in the lining epithelium of glands(It is the characteristic feature of proliferative phase) and stroma is compact and mitosis also seen in it. So if someone asks what is the defining feature of proliferative phase is mitosis because we won't find mitosis in secretory phase.

Microscopic findings

4X objective lens

In the scanner view(4X), we are seeing endometrial glands which are in tubules(round in shape) and stroma which is compact. Basically the proliferative phase endometrium looks blue in color in scanner view compare to secretory phase which is clear and pale. The stroma contains spindle shaped cells which are stromal cells and blood vessels.

40X objective lens

In the above image you can see mitosis in the stromal cell of stroma. So its a feature of proliferative phase.

The glands are in round or tubular in shape and the lining epithelium dhows elongated nucleus which are contrast to the nucleus which are seen in secretory phase which are round in shape.