Uterine Responses to the Preattachment Embryo in Domestic Ungulates: Recognition of Pregnancy and Preparation for Implantation

Abstract

The endometrium is a tissue newly evolved with the development of mammalian species. Its main function is the support of embryonic growth and development and the nutrition of the fetus. The species-specific differences in establishment and maintenance of pregnancy make the study of this tissue in various mammalian organisms particularly interesting. With the application of omics technologies to various mammalian species, many systematic studies of endometrial gene expression changes during the phase of establishment of pregnancy have been performed to obtain a global view of regulatory events associated with this biological process. This review summarizes the results of trancriptome studies of bovine, porcine, and equine endometrium. Furthermore, the results are compared between these species and to humans. Because an increasing number of studies suggest an important role of small regulatory RNAs (i.e., microRNAs), recent findings related to the regulation of endometrial functions and the development of the conceptus are presented.