The regular distribution and expression pattern of immunosuppressive cytokine IL-35 in mouse uterus during early pregnancy

Vol. 55 No. 4, 2014

ROMANIAN JOURNAL of MORPHOLOGY and EMBRYOLOGY

Erhui Jin, Chenfang Wang, Qianqian Hu, Guangming Jin, Shenghe Li

Cytokines within the uterus are critical in the maternal-fetal immune regulation. Immunosuppressive cytokine IL-35 was recently discovered inhibitory cytokine, which were pivotal in the establishment of immune tolerance against self-antigens and antigens encountered in foreign implantation. In order to analyze the role of IL-35 in maternal-fetal immune tolerance, the expression patterns of IL-35 in mouse endometrium were studied during early pregnancy by immunohistochemistry, ELISA and quantitative real-time PCR. As results, we found that IL-35 positive cells in the uterus showed significant distribution difference after fetal implantation, which mainly distributed in luminal epithelium and glandular epithelium of mouse uterus from gestational day 1 to 2, and glandular epithelium and stroma from gestational day 4 to 7. The number of positive cells, immunoreactive scores, protein and mRNA expression of IL-35 showed firstly increased and then decreased with the increase of pregnancy day. The largest contents of IL-35 in the uterus were detected on gestational day 4. Compared with non-pregnant mice, pregnant mice showed the significantly increased mRNA expression of Ebi3 (Epstein-Barr virus-induced gene 3, IL-35 subunit) in the endometrium on gestational day 2 and the highest level of expression on gestational day 4. The mRNA expression of p35 (IL-35 subunit) was significantly lower than that of Ebi3 gene and showed the inconsistent change from gestational day 5 to 7. However, the significant correlation existed between the immunohistochemical expression, contents and mRNA expression of IL-35. These results indicated that IL-35 contributed to the establishment and maintenance of maternal-fetal tolerance during early pregnancy._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_

Corresponding author: Shenghe Li, Professor, PhD; e-mail: lish@ahstu.edu.cn

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