Gene expression profiling of mouse uterus during experimentally induced decidualization

To gain insights into the genes whose expression levels are altered during stromal cell differentiation (decidualization), gene microarray profiling was performed following the experimentally induced decidualization protocol. CD-1 adult female mice were primed with steroid hormone, estrogen and progesterone, following experimentally induced decidualization protocol. One uterine horn was injected with corn oil to stimulate decidualization, the other horn served as unstimulated control. Uterine tissues were collected 72 h post stimulation. The uterine horns, from 3 animals/treatment, were pooled and total RNA was isolated and then hybridized to high-density Affymetrix microarrays according to the Affymetrix protocol.