Interaction of preimplantation factor with the global bovine endometrial transcriptome
We report the effect of synthetic preimplantation factor (sPIF) on the bovine endometrial transcriptome in an ex vivo model. Bovine endometrial explant tissues were cultured from heifers in the follicular stage of the oestrous cycle (n=7). Explants from each animal were cultured in media alone or in the presence of sPIF for a total of 30h and total RNA extracted and RNA-sequencing performed on Illumina HiSeq. Following quality assessment, trimming via Trimmomatic and alignment through Bowtie 2, featureCounts was used to calculate read abundance and deSeq2 to analyse differentially expressed genes following sPIF treatment. As a result of sPIF treatment, 102 genes were differentially expressed compared to the control (Padj<0.1), although none by more than 2-fold. Pathway analysis revealed targeting of several immune based pathways. Steroid biosynthesis was the only over-represented pathway with all genes upregulated. We demonstrate that sPIF can modulate the bovine endometrial transcriptome in an immune modulatory manner, like that in the human endometrium, however, the regulation of genes was much weaker than in previous human work.    Overall design: Evaluation of total RNA via RNA-seq from bovine endometrial tissue with or without sPIF treatment. Seven animals used with RNA extracted from 2 explants per animal (with or without sPIF treatment) Giving a total of 14 RNA-seq samples.