Identifying estrogen regulated gene expression profile of pre-implantation mouse embryos
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Comparison of the gene expression profiles of pre-implantation embryos at day 3.5 post coitum from normal pregnant mice (control); embryos from mice treated with ICI (specific estrogen receptor inhibitor); and embryos in the oviduct that were blocked from entering the uterus by ligation. Results provide insight into the function of estrogen regulated genes and uterine factors involved in the early implantation process. RNA were extracted from 3 groups of 100-120 embryos (a) embryos at d3.5 from uterus of normal pregnant mice; (b) embryos at d3.5 from uterus of ICI treated mice; and (c) embryos at d3.5 from the ligated oviduct.
Project description:Comparison of the gene expression profiles of pre-implantation embryos at day 3.5 post coitum from normal pregnant mice (control); embryos from mice treated with ICI (specific estrogen receptor inhibitor); and embryos in the oviduct that were blocked from entering the uterus by ligation. Results provide insight into the function of estrogen regulated genes and uterine factors involved in the early implantation process.
Project description:In present, interspecies cloning and interspecies-pregnancy were studied for endangered species rescue. However, the low implantation and survival ratio, spontaneous abortion, and unknown reason embryos absorption are the common and difficult problems of interspecies-pregnancy. In order to discover the mechanism of interspecies-pregnant failure and find ways to overcome the xeon-pregnant obstacles, we chosen the rat embryos pregnant in mouse uterus as a interspecies-pregnancy model. Three groups were set, mouse embryos to mouse recipients (MM) as control group, rat embryos to mouse recipients (RM), and rat and mouse embryos to mouse recipients together (RMM) as experiment groups. The former studies showed that rat embryos live no longer than day 7 of mouse pregnancy (D7). Our results showed that rat embryos survived to D7, and still existed to day 9 of mouse pregnancy (D9) in RM group. Surprisingly, the rat embryos survived to day 13 of the mouse gestation (D13) in RMM group. Microarray analysis was used to detect the global-gene expression profile changes of the whole implantation sites among the three groups at D7 and D9. By this way, we screened out the genes promoting the implanted rat embryos development in a mouse uterus which helped the rat embryos survive to D13 in RMM group compared with RM group, and the genes hindering the rat embryos development in a mouse uterus which prevented rat embryos living longer than D7 in RM group and D13 in RMM group compared with MM group. These findings provide insights into the mechanism of interspecies pregnant failure and new idea for interspecies pregnant studies. Experiment Overall Design: microarray was use to screen the genes among the day 7 and day 9 implantation sites of rat embryos implantation sites in a mouse uterus between rat embryos transfer to mouse recipients and rat embryos transfer to mouse recipients with mouse embryos. The mouse day7 and day 9 embryos implantation sites were use as control. Experiment Overall Design: totally 6 samples were analyzed, each samples two replications (one of them had three replications).
Project description:Gene regulation at the maternal-embryonic transition in the pre-implantation mouse embryo is not well understood. We knock down Ccna2 to establish proof-of-concept that antisense morpholino oligonucleotides can be used to target specific genes. We applied this strategy to study Oct4 and discovered that Oct4 is required prior to blastocyst development. Specifically, gene expression is altered as early as the 2-cell stage in Oct4-knockdown embryos. Distinct subsets of genes are differentially expressed between Oct4 and Ccna2-knockdown embryos, and indicated differential functions. Further, a large panel of genes were confirmed to be differentially-expressed in Oct4-knockdown embryos by quantitative, real time RT-PCR. Keywords: gene knockdown 3-5 week old wild type F1 (C57BL6xDBA/2) females (Charles River) were superovulated by intraperitonial injections of 5 IU of pregnant mare’s serum gonadotropin (Sigma) followed by 5 IU of human chorionic gonadotropin (Sigma) 48 hours later, and mated overnight with wild type males. Mice were sacrificed by cervical dislocation 17 hours after hCG injection, and 1-cell embryos were released from oviducts. Cumulus cells were removed by hyaluronidase (Sigma) treatment and pipetting. Pre-implantation embryos at the two pronuclei stage were recovered, pooled from 3-6 females in M2 media (Chemicon International), followed by immediate cytoplasmic microinjection of gene-specific antisense morpholino oligonucleotides and culture in Human Tubal Fluid with 10% serum supplement (In-Vitro Fertilization, Inc.) microdrops under mineral oil (Sigma) in mixed gas (90% nitrogen, 5% oxygen, 5% carbon dioxide; Praxair) at 37°C, and cultured at ten embryos per 20 μL drop. Uninjected control embryos derived from the same embryo pool, and were placed in identical conditions in parallel, except that they were not injected.
Project description:Synchrony between embryo competency and uterine receptivity is essential for a successful implantation. Mice with ablation of COUP-TFII in the uterus (PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox), exhibit implantation defects and increased ER activity in the luminal epithelium, suggesting the high ER activity may disrupt the window of uterine receptivity. In order to determine if the increased ER activity in PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant is the cause of the defective implantation, we inhibited of ER activity in order to rescue the implantation defect in mutant mice. ICI 182,780 (ICI), a pure ER antagonist, was administered to PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant and COUP-TFIIflox/flox control mice during receptive period and the number of implantation sites were examined. COUP-TFIIflox/flox control mice treated with oil or ICI showed the normal number of implantation sites. As expected no implantation sites were observed in PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice treated with oil, consistent with previous observation. However, implantation sites were detected, albeit at a reduced number in comparison to the control in PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice upon ICI treatment.. ICI treatment was also able to rescue the expression of WNT4 and BMP2, genes important for endometrial decidualization in the PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice. To ensure the rescue of embryo attachment and decidualization is a consequence of a reduction of estrogen receptor activity with ICI treatment of the mutants, we examined the expression of ER target gene, such as lactoferrin, in PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice. Having shown that ICI could rescue the implantation and decidualization defects of the PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice, the ability of ICI treatment to rescue pregnancy in these mice was assayed. While mice were born in COUP-TFIIflox/flox control mice given ICI, no pups were born in the PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice, with the loss in pregnancy in the PRCre/+;COUP-TFIIflox/flox mutant mice treated with ICI being due to defects in placentation. These results demonstrate that during the peri implantation period, COUP-TFIIâs role in regulating embryo attachment and decidualiton is through the reduction of ER activity. However COUP-TFII expression is still required in the post implantation period to facilitate placentation. Experiment Overall Design: Murine uteri were isolated at 6 hour after oil or ICI 182,780 injection for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. To do this mice were ovariectomized and treated hormones (estrogen and progesterone) to mimic the early pregnant condition.
Project description:In present, interspecies cloning and interspecies-pregnancy were studied for endangered species rescue. However, the low implantation and survival ratio, spontaneous abortion, and unknown reason embryos absorption are the common and difficult problems of interspecies-pregnancy. In order to discover the mechanism of interspecies-pregnant failure and find ways to overcome the xeon-pregnant obstacles, we chosen the rat embryos pregnant in mouse uterus as a interspecies-pregnancy model. Three groups were set, mouse embryos to mouse recipients (MM) as control group, rat embryos to mouse recipients (RM), and rat and mouse embryos to mouse recipients together (RMM) as experiment groups. The former studies showed that rat embryos live no longer than day 7 of mouse pregnancy (D7). Our results showed that rat embryos survived to D7, and still existed to day 9 of mouse pregnancy (D9) in RM group. Surprisingly, the rat embryos survived to day 13 of the mouse gestation (D13) in RMM group. Microarray analysis was used to detect the global-gene expression profile changes of the whole implantation sites among the three groups at D7 and D9. By this way, we screened out the genes promoting the implanted rat embryos development in a mouse uterus which helped the rat embryos survive to D13 in RMM group compared with RM group, and the genes hindering the rat embryos development in a mouse uterus which prevented rat embryos living longer than D7 in RM group and D13 in RMM group compared with MM group. These findings provide insights into the mechanism of interspecies pregnant failure and new idea for interspecies pregnant studies. Keywords: time course, pregnancy day
Project description:Affymetrix Gene ST 1.0 arrays were performed on total RNA obtained from ovaries of 5 female mice (pregnant or non-pregnant; mock or MCMV infection). Mice were infected 9.5 days post conception with 2x10e05 PFU MCMV i.v.. RNA was prepared at 5 days post infection (14.5 days post conception). Total RNA prepared from ovaries of 5 mice per condition was pooled and subjected to microarray analysis. Data were normalised using RMA.
Project description:The oviducts play a critical role in gamete and embryo transport, as well as supporting fertilization and early embryo development. Progesterone receptor (PGR) is a transcription factor highly expressed in oviductal cells, while it’s activating ligand, progesterone (P4), surges to peak levels as ovulation approaches. P4 is known to regulate oviduct cilia beating and muscular contractions in vitro, but how PGR may mediate this in vivo is poorly understood. We used PGR-knockout (PRKO) mice to determine how PGR regulates oviductal function during the periovulatory period, in particular oviductal transport and embryo support. We used microarrays to identify putative PGR-regulated genes in the oviduct during the periovulatory period, a time when the oviduct is preparing to receive the newly-ovulated COC. The mutant strain used in this experiment were PRlacZ knock-in mice which originated from Assoc Prof John Lydon, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston TX, USA. The lacZ insertion results in disruption of transcription of both isoforms of PGR (Ismail et al, 2002, Mol Endocrinol 16:2475-2489), and therefore mice homozygous for the lacZ insertion are a phenocopy of the knockout strain described by Lydon et al. (1995, Genes Dev. 9:2266-2278) and are hereafter referred to as PRKO. Heterozygous mice (PR+/-) are a phenocopy of WT and have normal fertility (Ismail et al, 2002) and are therefore appropriate controls. Whole oviducts were collected from pre-pubertal PRKO and PR+/- mice 8 h after a standard protocol for hormonal induction of ovulation. Day 21-23 old mice were injected i.p. with 5IU of equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) to stimulate follicle growth, followed 44-47 h later by i.p. injection of 5 IU of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) to trigger ovulatory processes. Oviducts from 15 animals were collected per genotype, with oviducts from 3 animals pooled per sample for a total of n = 5 samples per genotype.
Project description:In female mammals, the oviduct and uterus play an important role in successful pregnancy by affecting on gamete transport, fertilization, implantation and maintenance of pregnancy. In the mutant Amhr2-cre; Smad4 fx/fx mice, the reproductive functions of both the oviduct and uterus are impaired due to the development of oviductal diverticula and defective uterine vascularization and decidualization, respectively. We used microarrays to decipher the gene expression changes responsible for this phenotype.
Project description:Male embryos are reported to develop faster than female in the preimplantation stage. Therefore, male and female embryos can be considered phenotypically different as early as the preimplantation stage. Employing our sexing system of enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) tagging X chromosomes, we compared the global gene expression pattern of male and female embryos at the blastocyst stage using DNA microarray. Experiment Overall Design: samples were collected from three independent preparations and the experiments were triplicated. Scanned microarray results were processed with Feature Extraction software (ver. 7.5, Agilent). ãThe hybridization experiments were duplicated in a reciprocal labeling manner to reduce dye integration bias, and total of six hybridizations were carried out for the entire analysis.ã Combining plural array results and statistical analyses were carried out by Luminator software (Rosetta).
Project description:It is basically understood that male and female development is initiated by gonad differentiation into either testis or ovary. However, male embryos are reported to develop faster than female during preimplantation, implying sex differences at this stage. To learn more about when sex differentiation begins, we compared the global gene expression pattern of male and female embryos at the blastocyst stage. First, Blastocyst samples were sexed, using a novel method for non-invasive sexing of preimplantation stage mouse embryos by tagging the X chromosome with an EGFP transgene, Next, gene expression patterns of the male and female were compared using DNA microarray. ï¼³amples were collected from three independent preparations and the experiments were triplicated. Scanned microarray results were processed with Feature Extraction software (ver. 7.5, Agilent). ãThe hybridization experiments were duplicated in a reciprocal labeling manner to reduce dye integration bias, and total of six hybridizations were carried out using each 22K-1 and 22K-2 array.ã Combining plural array results and statistical analyses were carried out by Luminator software (Rosetta).