Pregnancy-associated changes of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPARD) and cytochrome P450 family 21 subfamily A member 2 (CYP21A2) expression in the bovine corpus luteum

Abstract

We investigated gene expression profiles of the corpus luteum (CL) at the time of maternal recognition to evaluate the functional changes of the CL during early pregnancy in cows and help improve reproductive efficiency and avoid defective fetuses. Microarray analyses using a 15 K bovine oligo DNA microarray detected 30 differentially expressed genes and 266 differentially expressed genes (e.g., PPARD and CYP21A2) in the CL on pregnancy days 15 (P15) and 18 (P18), respectively, compared with the CL on day 15 (NP15) of non-pregnancy (n = 4 for each group). PPARD expression was the highest while the CYP21A2 expression was the lowest in P15 and P18 compared with that of NP15. These microarray results were validated by quantitative real-time PCR analysis.