Es-Haghi, M., Godakumara, K., Häling, A. et al. (9 more authors) (2019) Specific trophoblast transcripts transferred by extracellular vesicles affect gene expression in endometrial epithelial cells and may have a role in embryo-maternal crosstalk. Cell Communication and Signaling, 17 (1). 146. ISSN 1478-811X
Abstract
Background
Successful establishment of pregnancy hinges on appropriate communication between the embryo and the uterus prior to implantation, but the nature of this communication remains poorly understood. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the endometrium is receptive to embryo-derived signals in the form of RNA.
Methods
We have utilized a non-contact co culture system to simulate the conditions of pre implantation environment of the uterus. We bioorthogonally tagged embryonic RNA and tracked the transferred transcripts to endometrium. Transferred transcripts were separated from endometrial transcripts and sequenced. Changes in endometrial transcripts were quantified using quantitative PCR.
Results
We show that three specific transcripts are transferred to endometrial cells. We subsequently demonstrate a role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in this process, as EVs obtained from cultured trophoblast spheroids incubated with endometrial cells induced down-regulation of all the three identified transcripts in endometrial cells.
Finally, we show that EVs/nanoparticles captured from conditioned culture media of viable embryos as opposed to degenerating embryos induce ZNF81 down-regulation in endometrial cells, hinting at the functional importance of this intercellular communication.
Conclusion
Ultimately, our findings demonstrate the existence of an RNA-based communication which may be of critical importance for the establishment of pregnancy.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
Keywords: | Embryo-maternal communication; Extracellular vesicles; Non-coding RNA |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > Department of Human Metabolism (Sheffield) The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > Department of Oncology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 02 Dec 2019 11:36 |
Last Modified: | 03 Dec 2019 14:22 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Verlag |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1186/s12964-019-0448-x |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:154061 |