Journal of Biological Chemistry
Volume 283, Issue 34, 22 August 2008, Pages 23473-23484
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Molecular Basis of Cell and Developmental Biology
MicroRNA Expression and Regulation in Mouse Uterus during Embryo Implantation*

https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M800406200Get rights and content
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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are 21-24-nucleotide non-coding RNAs found in diverse organisms. Although hundreds of miRNAs have been cloned or predicted, only very few miRNAs have been functionally characterized. Embryo implantation is a crucial step in mammalian reproduction. Many genes have been shown to be significantly changed in mouse uterus during embryo implantation. However, miRNA expression profiles in the mouse uterus between implantation sites and inter-implantation sites are still unknown. In this study, miRNA microarray was used to examine differential expression of miRNAs in the mouse uterus between implantation sites and inter-implantation sites. Compared with inter-implantation sites, there were 8 up-regulated miR-NAs at implantation sites, which were confirmed by both Northern blot and in situ hybridization. miR-21 was highly expressed in the subluminal stromal cells at implantation sites on day 5 of pregnancy. Because miR-21 was not detected in mouse uterus during pseudopregnancy and under delayed implantation, miR-21 expression at implantation sites was regulated by active blastocysts. Furthermore, we showed that Reck was the target gene of miR-21. Our data suggest that miR-21 may play a key role during embryo implantation.

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*

This work was supported by National Basic Research Program of China Grants 2006CB504005 and 2006CB944006 and Chinese National Natural Science Foundation Grants 30570198 and 30770244. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.