Abstract. Hedgehog (Hh) plays a pivotal role in various tissues during embryonic development, tissue homeostasis and tumorigenesis. In mammals, Hh exists in three homologs: Desert hedgehog (Dhh), Indian hedgehog (Ihh) and Sonic hedgehog (Shh). In this study, we cloned full-length cDNAs encoding Dhh and Ihh from the rat uterus. Their amino acid sequences have a high homology with those of the mouse and human. In addition, the changes of Hh gene expression in the rat uterus during early pregnancy were analyzed. The results showed that all three hedgehog mRNAs were detected in the rat uterus at the proestrus stage and during early pregnancy (1.5, 3.5, 5.5 and 7.5 days post coitus: dpc). Ihh mRNA expression varied and peaked at 3.5 dpc in the luminal and glandular epithelium. Expression was decreased on 5.5 dpc with the exception of sustained expression in the glandular epithelium. Despite such Ihh variability, the expressions of Dhh and Shh mRNA remained unchanged. This indicated that Ihh was mainly expressed in the rat uterus during early pregnancy. Moreover, the Hh target gene (glioma-associated oncogene homolog 1; Gli1) was also highly expressed at 3.5 dpc in the epithelium and periepithelial stroma in a manner similar to the temporal pattern of Ihh expression. This suggests that Ihh signaling axis play a role in the rat uterus during early pregnancy. In summary, our results elucidate that Ihh is a predominant Hh protein in the rat uterus during early pregnancy and that other Hhs have the potential to be expressed. This observation will help to elucidate the basic molecular mechanism of rat uterus during early pregnancy. Key words: Hedgehog, Implantation, Rat, Uterus (J. Reprod. Dev. 54: [340][341][342][343][344][345] 2008) regnancy in mammals is accompanied by dramatic remodeling of uterine tissue, which provides optimal conditions for subsequent embryo implantation and development. In early pregnancy, the mammal's endometrial epithelial and stromal cells undergo rapid and coordinated proliferation and differentiation in response to steroid hormones, 17β-estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P4) [1,2]. In rodents, E2 stimulates epithelial cells to initiate proliferation on days 1 to 3 of pregnancy. Then P4, in combination with continuation of E2 stimuli, triggers epithelial cell differentiation and stromal cell proliferation. By day 4 or 5, the epithelial and stromal cells are tidily differentiated in final preparation for embryo attachment and implantation [3]. As a result, the endometrium acquires uterine receptivity, allowing for various reactions such as implantation and decidualization. However, in spite of all we know regarding the many aspects of the receptive uterus, the frequency of occurrence of female infertility begs a deeper understanding, particularly, of the details of hormonal control of the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved. These things remain unclear, in part, due to the nature of the intricate signaling hierarchy process and complex dynamics of subsequent morphological change. In addi...

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The induction of the decidualization of endometrial stromal cells is possible in an in vitro cell culture system. However, thus far, methods differ according to species or cell type, and a more stable or universal system has not yet been developed. The purpose of the present study has been to establish an in vitro decidualization system in primary cultured rat endometrial stromal cells (RES). The RES were treated with medroxyprogesterone acetate and dibutyryl-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (MPA treatment), estradiol and progesterone, or arachidonic acid. After 24 h of treatment, cells responded to all of the stimulations by expressing desmin mRNA. However, decidual/trophoblast prolactin-related protein (dPRP) mRNA was only expressed in the MPA-treated cells. Desmin and dPRP mRNA were not expressed after MPA treatment of the RES derived from immature rat uteri. However, mRNA from both desmin and dPRP were expressed in RES derived from gonadotrophin-injected immature rats. The expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and MMP-9 mRNA did not change after the decidual treatment of RES examined by real-time polymerase chain reaction. However, the results of gelatin zymography showed that the active forms of MMP-2 and MMP-9 significantly increased after in vitro decidualization (P < 0.05). We conclude that MPA treatment is the most effective method for stimulating decidualization in RES. Use of this system has revealed that sexual maturation and gonadotrophins are important for RES with regard to decidualization. Furthermore, the activity of MMP-2 and MMP-9 might increase during decidualization without a corresponding increase of the expression of these genes.

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is known as a pluripotent cell mediator, and it is implicated in the control of uterine cell growth, differentiation and function during estrous cycle and pregnancy. In this study, we investigated the effect of TNF-alpha on endometrial stromal cells derived from rat uterus (rat endometrial stromal cells, RES). RES were isolated from rat endometrium at day 5 of pregnancy. Proliferation activities of RES were measured by using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling kit, the productions of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and prostaglandin F2alpha (PGF2alpha) were measured by enzyme immunoassay kits and the production of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) was analyzed by gelatin-zymography. TNF-alpha, as well as epidermal growth factor and fibroblast growth factor-2, significantly increased the proliferation activity of RES (P<0.05). TNF-alpha selectively stimulated the production of PGE2 in RES (P<0.05), but not the production of PGF2alpha. Additionally, TNF-alpha did not stimulate the production of MMPs in RES at the concentration of 5 ng/mL, compared with the control groups (P>0.05). In conclusion, this study demonstrates several regulational functions of TNF-alpha on RES using in vitro culture system. The effects of TNF-alpha on proliferation and MMP production of RES have been shown for the first time. We believe that these results demonstrate part of the functions of TNF-alpha in endometrium and contribute to the better understanding of endometrial functions.

Implantation serine protease (ISP) was first identified in the uteri of pregnant mice. It is thought that ISP may have an important role in the initiation of implantation. However, the expression status and detailed functions of ISP remain unclear. In this study, the expression of ISP was investigated in the rat uterus. The analysis of two rat genes registered in GenBank, accession nos. XM_220240 and XM_577076, exhibited high identities to the mouse ISP2 genes, respectively at an mRNA level. We labeled the former as rISP2a and the latter as rISP2b. Using RT-PCR, we found that both genes were expressed in the uterus. Specifically, rISP2a mRNA was detected in the uterus throughout pregnancy, whereas rISP2b mRNA was only expressed in the uterus from day 5 of pregnancy until the end of gestation. Expression of both genes was observed specifically within the endometrial gland epithelium. Furthermore, rISP2a was also observed to be expressed in the fetus and placenta, whereas rISP2b expression was observed in the fetus but not in the placenta. An expressional signal of the rISP2a gene was observed in the spongiotrophoblasts, giant cells and decidual endometrium in the placenta. In the embryo, the ventral specific region was positive in rISP2a and rISP2b gene expression. These findings indicate the possibility that the presently examined genes with high identity to mouse ISP2 may play some role not only during the implantation phase, but also in the development of the placenta and embryo. J. Exp. Zool. (Mol. Dev. Evol.) 310B:642-649, 2008. r 2008 How to cite this article: Oozono S, Yamuchi N, Nishimura K, Matsumoto K, Watanabe R, Kubota K, Aramaki S, Sato F, Wood C, Soh T, Kizaki KI, Hattori MA. 2008. Expression of rat uterine serine proteinases homologous to mouse implantation serine proteinase 2. J. Exp. Zool. (Mol. Dev. Evol.) 310B:642-649.