Expression of leptin and its long form receptor at the porcine maternal-fetal interface: contrasting healthy and arresti
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RESEARCH
Open Access
Expression of leptin and its long form receptor at the porcine maternal-fetal interface: contrasting healthy and arresting conceptus attachment sites during early and mid-pregnancy Ashley Kerr1†, Rami T Kridli1,2†, Kasra Khalaj1,3, Jocelyn M Wessels1,4, Ann Hahnel1 and Chandrakant Tayade1,3*
Abstract Background: It is well established that spontaneous conceptus loss in swine is associated with an imbalance of both angiogenic and immunological factors. Leptin (LEP), a metabolic hormone, has also been implicated in the promotion of angiogenesis. In this study, LEP and its long form receptor (OB-Rb) were evaluated during porcine pregnancy to assess their basal level of expression and their potential role in conceptus development. Methods: Expression and secretion of LEP and OB-Rb were quantified in the endometrium of non-pregnant (n = 5), and in the endometrium and chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) of pregnant sows (parity 2 to 5) at gestational days (gd) 20 (n = 8) and 50 (n = 8). Data were analyzed by a 3-way ANOVA testing the effects of conceptus health, tissue type and gestational day. Results: Leptin and OB-Rb transcripts were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in pregnant than in non-pregnant sows. Significantly greater LEP (P < 0.001) was detected in the endometrial tissue at gd20 compared with gd50. At the protein level, the lowest LEP expression (P < 0.01) was detected in the CAM at gd50, while OB-Rb protein was significantly lower (P < 0.01) at gd50 in the CAM than in the endometrium collected from gd20 and gd50 conceptus attachment sites. Immunofluorescence staining confirmed the expression of these proteins at both gestational days and in both tissue types. Conclusions: Changes in the expression patterns of LEP and OB-Rb between gd20 and gd50 suggest a role for the LEP/OB-R complex at the early stages of porcine pregnancy, possibly affecting the attachment process. Further mechanistic studies are warranted to understand the specific role of leptin in porcine pregnancy. Keywords: Pigs, Gestation, Endometrium, Chorioallantoic membrane, PCR, Western blotting, Immunohistochemistry
Background Prenatal embryonic/fetal loss is a major concern for North American pork producers with approximately 30 to 45% of the conceptuses lost during gestation (gestational length is 114 days) [1]. Two waves of spontaneous conceptus loss are documented: a primary loss of approximately 20-30% during the time of peri-attachment * Correspondence: [email protected] † Equal contributors 1 Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada 3 Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
(around gestational day (gd) 15–20) and a second loss of 10-15% during mid-gestation (around gd50) [1-8]. Understanding the physiological and molecular mechanisms behind these losses may help increase litter size, thus positively impacting the economic production of commercial swine. N
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