Analysis of uterine gene expression in interleukin-15 knockout mice reveals uterine natural killer cells do not play a major role in decidualization and associated angiogenesis.

ABSTRACT: During decidualization, uterine natural killer (uNK) cells are the most abundant immune cell types found in the uterus. Although it is well known that they play key roles in spiral arteriole modification and the maintenance of decidual integrity seen after mid-pregnancy, their roles in the differentiation of decidual cells and accompanying angiogenesis during the process of decidualization is less well characterized. To address this, we used whole-genome Illumina BeadChip analysis to compare the gene expression profiles in implantation segments of the uterus during decidualization on day 7.5 of pregnancy between wild-type and uNK cell-deficient (interleukin-15-knockout) mice. We found almost 300 differentially expressed genes and verified the differential expression of ~60 using quantitati

SUBMITTER: Bany BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3307949 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature