Estrogen and high-fat diet induced alterations of endometrial transcriptome profile in ovariectomized C57BL/6 mice

Unopposed estrogen stimulation and insulin resistance are known to play important roles in endometrial cancer (EC), but the relationship between these two factors and how they contribute to endometrial lesions is not completely understood. To investigate the endometrial transcriptome profiles and the associated molecular pathway alterations, we established an ovariectomized C57BL/6 mouse model treated with subcutaneous implantation of the 17-β estradiol (E2) pellet and/or high-fat diet (HFD) to mimic sustained estrogen stimulation and insulin resistance. We used microarrays to detail the global program of gene expression underlying the mice endometrium and indentified distinct classes of E2 and/or high-fat diet related ncRNA during this process. All mice received bilateral oophorectomy at 6-8 weeks after birth.The mice were then randomly divided into four groups and treated with normal chow diet, E2-releasing pellet implanted subcutaneously, high-fat diet and E2-releasing pellet implanted subcutaneously plus high-fat diet for 12 weeks. Mice endometrium were selected for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. We sought to investigate differential transcriptome and ncRNA profiles affected by estrogen and/or high-fat diet.