He Jia-Peng, Zhao Miao, Zhang Wen-Qian, Huang Ming-Yu, Zhu Can, Cheng Hao-Zhuang, Liu Ji-Long
College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
Front Physiol. 2019 Feb 14;10:125. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00125. eCollection 2019.
The mouse is a widely used animal model for studying human reproduction. Although global gene expression changes associated with human uterine receptivity have been determined by independent groups, the same studies in the mouse are scarce. The extent of similarities/differences between mice and humans on uterine receptivity at the molecular level remains to be determined. In the present study, we analyzed global gene expression changes in receptive uterus on day 4 of pregnancy compared to non-receptive uterus on day 3 of pregnancy in mice. A total of 541 differentially expressed genes were identified, of which 316 genes were up-regulated and 225 genes were down-regulated in receptive uterus compared to non-receptive uterus. Gene ontology and gene network analysis highlighted the activation of inflammatory response in the receptive uterus. By analyzing the promoter sequences of differentially expressed genes, we identified 12 causal transcription factors. Through connectivity map (CMap) analysis, we revealed several compounds with potential anti-receptivity activity. Finally, we performed a cross-species comparison against human uterine receptivity from a published dataset. Our study provides a valuable resource for understanding the molecular mechanism underlying uterine receptivity in mice.
小鼠是研究人类生殖的一种广泛使用的动物模型。尽管不同研究小组已经确定了与人类子宫容受性相关的全基因组表达变化，但在小鼠中进行的同类研究却很少。小鼠和人类在子宫容受性分子水平上的相似性/差异程度仍有待确定。在本研究中，我们分析了小鼠妊娠第4天的容受性子宫与妊娠第3天的非容受性子宫之间的全基因组表达变化。共鉴定出541个差异表达基因，其中与非容受性子宫相比，容受性子宫中有316个基因上调，225个基因下调。基因本体论和基因网络分析突出了容受性子宫中炎症反应的激活。通过分析差异表达基因的启动子序列，我们鉴定出12个因果转录因子。通过连通性图谱（CMap）分析，我们发现了几种具有潜在抗容受性活性的化合物。最后，我们根据已发表的数据集中对人类子宫容受性进行了跨物种比较。我们的研究为理解小鼠子宫容受性的分子机制提供了宝贵的资源。
