title: Wnt6 is essential for stromal cell proliferation during decidualization in mice.
abstract: Postimplantation uterine development involves extensive stromal cell proliferation and decidual transformation with polyploidization, which is essential for normal pregnancy establishment. However, it remains largely unknown how stromal proliferation versus decidual polyploidization is differentially regulated during decidualization. Utilizing Wnt6-mutant mice, we show here that Wnt6 deficiency impairs stromal cell proliferation without much adverse effects on decidual polyploidization. Applying a primary stromal cell culture model, we further reveal that loss of Wnt6 prolongs the cell cycle length via downregulating cyclin B1 expression, thus attenuating stromal cell proliferation. Our study provides the first genetic evidence that Wnt6 is critical for normal stromal cell proliferation in mice, highlighting the concept that there are differential machineries governing the process of stromal cell proliferation versus decidual transformation during early pregnancy. This finding has high clinical relevance because Wnt signaling is known to be important for human implantation and endometrial function.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jinhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Shuang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shumin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Weixiang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Bingyan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Fengchao
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Enkui
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leitges
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kispert
authors.forename: Haibin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000502:physiology; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D010064:Embryo Implantation / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D011123:Polyploidy; D011247:Pregnancy; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D014599:Uterus / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology; D051153:Wnt Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D051153:Wnt Proteins; C095936:Wnt6 protein, mouse