title: Uterine glands impact uterine receptivity, luminal fluid homeostasis and blastocyst implantation.
abstract: Uterine glands are essential for pregnancy in mice and likely humans, because they secrete or transport bioactive substances that regulate uterine receptivity for blastocyst implantation. In mice, the uterus becomes receptive to blastocyst implantation on day 4, but is refractory by day 5. Here, blastocysts could be recovered from progesterone-induced uterine gland (PUGKO) but not wildtype (WT) mice on day 5 post-mating. Anti-adhesive Muc1 protein and microvilli were present on the luminal epithelium of PUGKO but not WT uteri. A number of known uterine receptivity genes and gland-specific genes were altered in the PUGKO uterus. Next, the uterus and uterine luminal fluid (ULF) were obtained from WT and PUGKO mice on day 3, 4 and 5. Transcriptome analysis revealed that 580 genes were decreased in the PUGKO uterus, however ULF secrotome analysis revealed that many proteins and several amino acids were increased in the PUGKO ULF. Of note, many proteins encoded by many gland-specific genes were not identified in the ULF of WT mice. These results support the ideas that uterine glands secrete factors that regulate ULF homeostasis and interact with other cell types in the uterus to influence uterine receptivity and blastocyst implantation for the establishment of pregnancy.
authors.affiliation: Division of Animal Sciences, 158 ASRC, 920 East Campus Drive, University of Missouri, Columbia 65211, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kelleher
authors.affiliation: Division of Animal Sciences, 158 ASRC, 920 East Campus Drive, University of Missouri, Columbia 65211, USA.
authors.forename: Gregory W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Burns
authors.affiliation: Division of Animal Sciences, 158 ASRC, 920 East Campus Drive, University of Missouri, Columbia 65211, USA.
authors.forename: Susanta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Behura
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Nutrition, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843-2471, USA.
authors.forename: Guoyao
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Division of Animal Sciences, 158 ASRC, 920 East Campus Drive, University of Missouri, Columbia 65211, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Spencer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000502:physiology*; D010064:Embryo Implantation / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D006706:Homeostasis; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D008871:Microvilli / Q000378:metabolism; D018396:Mucin-1 / Q000378:metabolism; D011247:Pregnancy; D011374:Progesterone / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA / Q000379:methods; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases / Q000378:metabolism; D014599:Uterus / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D018396:Mucin-1; C577056:muc1 protein, mouse; D011374:Progesterone; C570199:Trip12 protein, mouse; D044767:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases