Gene expression profi ling of mouse aborted uterus induced by lipopolysac charide

To identify genes that participate in the abortion process, normal pregnant uteri were compared to lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced abortion uteri. At day 6 of pregnancy, mice were treated with LPS at various time points to induce an abortion. Total RNAs were applied to a cDNA microarray to analyze genes with altered expression. At the early stage (2 hours) of LPSinduced abortion, upregulated genes were mainly composed of immune responsive genes, including Ccl4, Ccl2, Cxcl13, Gbp3,Gbp2, Mx2, H2-Eb1, Irf1 and Ifi203. Genes related to toll-like receptor signaling were also overexpressed. At late stages of abortion (12-24 hours), many genes were suppressed rather than activated, and these were mainly related to the extracellular matrix, cytoskeleton, and anti-apoptosis. Altered expression of several selected genes was confirmed by real time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Th e results demonstrated that many known genes were altered in the LPS-treated pregnant uterus, implying that the molecular mechanisms of the genes involved in LPS-induced abortion are complicated. Further analysis of this expression profi le will help our understanding of the pathophysiological basis for abortion. KCI Citation Count: 0