earticle

영어

In ruminants, Interferon-τ (IFN-τ) has the role of recognizing pregnancy signals produced by the embryo and it may have an important role during the luteolysis. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of IFN-τ on prostaglandin synthesis, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) gene expression in vitro and secretion of progesterone (P4) in vivo. The epithelial and stromal cells isolated from bovine endometrium were cultured with different doses of IFN-τ (0, 0.02, 0.2 and 2 μg/ml). Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG, 1.5 IU/ml) was used as a positive control. Prostaglandin E2 and F2α levels in the culture media were analyzed by enzyme immunoassays, and total RNA was extracted from the cells for RT-PCR. P4 concentrations in blood samples were assayed by chemiluminescent immunoassay system. In epithelial cells, COX-2 gene expression was increased in the presence of IFN-τ (p<0.05), but it was not significantly different in all groups of stromal cells except 2 μg/ml IFN-τ group (p<0.05). Although IFN-τ did not affect PGE2 and PGF2α production in epithelial cells, it decreased PGE2 and PGF2α production significantly in stromal cells (p<0.05). In vivo experiment, the P4 concentrations in blood sample was significantly increased after injection of 1 μg/ml IFN-τ. These results indicate that PG production was mediated by COX-2 expression in the stromal cells but it did not affect in the epithelial cells, and suggest that treatment of IFN-τ was to improve the implantation environment of uterine by maintenance of high P4 concentration. * This work was carried out with the support of “Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project No. PJ907008)” Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.