Estrogen Receptor Alpha (ESR1)-Dependent Regulation of the Mouse Oviductal Transcriptome

Estrogen receptor-α (ESR1) is an important transcriptional regulator in the mammalian oviduct, however ESR1-dependent regulation of the transcriptome of this organ is not well defined, especially at the genomic level. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate estradiol- and ESR1-dependent regulation of the transcriptome of the oviduct using transgenic mice, both with (ESR1KO) and without (wild-type, WT) a global deletion of ESR1. Oviducts were collected from ESR1KO and WT littermates at 23 days of age, or ESR1KO and WT mice were treated with 5 IU PMSG to stimulate follicular development and the production of ovarian estradiol, and the oviducts collected 48 h later. RNA extracted from whole oviducts was hybridized to Affymetrix Genechip Mouse Genome 430–2.0 arrays (n = 3 arrays per genotype and treatment) or reverse transcribed to cDNA for analysis of the expression of selected mRNAs by real-time PCR. Following microarray analysis, a statistical two-way ANOVA and pairwise comparison (LSD test) revealed 2428 differentially expressed transcripts (DEG’s, P