Abstract

Early embryonic development, implantation, and maintenance of a pregnancy are critically dependent on an intact embryo-maternal communication. So far, only few signals involved in this dialogue have been identified. In ruminants, interferon tau (IFNÄ) plays a key role in the process of maternal recognition of pregnancy by exhibiting antiluteolytic activity. Even though many experimental findings indicate a pivotal role of IFNÄ in the context of embryo-maternal communication in ruminants, a number of other systems may be involved. To identify genes induced in the bovine endometrium by the signaling of the embryo, a combination of subtracted cDNA libraries and cDNA array hybridization was applied. Monozygotic twin pairs (n = 5) were used as the biological model. Pregnancy was created in one twin by transferring two in vitro-produced embryos on Day 7 of the estrous cycle; the other twin received a sham embryo transfer. Pregnant and nonpregnant twins were slaughtered at Day 18; endometrial tissue samples were recovered and processed for transcriptome analysis as described (Bauersachs et al. 2005 J. Mol. Endocrinol. 34, 889-908). Screening of 4608 clones of two subtracted libraries revealed 90 different up-regulated genes and mRNAs, of which almost 50% are known to be stimulated by type I interferons. Among these interferon-stimulated genes, the ISG15 system is assumed to be of particular interest, and several components were studied in more detail using in situ hybridization. The pattern of mRNA expression suggests that modification of endometrial proteins through ISG15ylation plays a fundamental role during the pre-implantation period. A classification of the identified genes based on Gene Ontologies revealed the prevalence of genes involved in regulation of gene expression, cell communication, cell growth, cell differentiation, cell proliferation, and cell adhesion, and also the prevalence of genes with immune-related functions. These results underline the intense response of the endometrium to the presence of a conceptus, culminating in the preparation of the maternal environment for embryonic implantation. Further, for eleven selected genes the expression in the endometrium was quantified by the use of real-time RT-PCR. Overall, the results of quantitative RT-PCR and array hybridization correlated very well. To our knowledge this study provides the first holistic gene expression analysis of the bovine endometrium during the pre-implantation period. The results underline the importance of IFNÄ as an embryo-derived pregnancy recognition signal and depict the molecular mechanisms at the mRNA level underlying the intense embryo-maternal dialog taking place at Day 18 of gestation.