GSE117112
Transciptional profile analysis of the gonadal (peri-uterine) white adipose tissue of pregnant mice
In this study we performed RNA sequencing to determine the transcriptome of the gonadal white adipose tissue of pregnant wild type mice. We further assessed, using conditional Rank?Foxn1 knockout mice (which lack expression of Rank in the thymic epithelia), how the expression of the receptor Rank in the thymic medullary epithelia affects the transcriptional program of this tissue during pregnancy, and whether adoptive transfer of natural regulatory Tregs can rescue the alterations observed in the Rank?Foxn1 dams. For this study, we isolated at day E17.5 of pregnancy, the gonadal (peri-uterine) white adipose tissue of wildtype RankWt as well as of Rank?Foxn1 dams pregnant females that were treated at days E0.5-2.5 of pregnancy with either vehicle (PBS) or with 1x105 sorted-purified wild-type natural Tregs isolated from RankWt pregnant E7.5-8.5 donors (denoted as Rank?Foxn1_Treg). For the isolation of viable Tregs for the transplant, we generated RankWt dams that express GFP from the Foxp3 promoter (by crossing to reporter mice), and use the expression of GFP to mark and isolate bona fide Tregs and, in addition, Neuropilin1 to denote the thymic origin of the Tregs. Of note, RankWt as well as of Rank?Foxn1 dams mice also carried the GFP-Foxp3 transgene and where treated with vehicle solution (PBS) at day E0.5-2.5. Total RNA was extracted from the isolated gonadal white adipose tissue of the three described cohorts (RankWt_veh, Rank?Foxn1_veh, and Rank?Foxn1_Treg) and analyzed by Quant-seq. Our study shows how the presence of Rank receptors in the thymic epithelium, functioning via natural Tregs, regulate the inflammatory and metabolic pathways implicated in adipose tissue biology during pregnancy. Overall design: 3' RNA-Seq (Quantseq) analysis of gonadal (peri-uterine) adipose tissue of E17.5 pregnant mice