Global endometrial transcriptomic profiling: transient immune activation precedes tissue proliferation and repair in healthy beef cows

All cows experience bacterial contamination and tissue injury in the uterus postpartum, instigating a local inflammatory immune response. However mechanisms that control inflammation and achieve a physiologically functioning endometrium, while avoiding disease in the postpartum cow are not succinctly defined. This study aimed to identify novel candidate genes indicative of inflammation resolution during involution in healthy beef cows. Previous histological analysis of endometrial inflammation showed a great degree of inflammation 15 days postpartum (DPP) which significantly decreased by 30 DPP. The current study generated a genome-wide transcriptomic profile of endometrial biopsies at both time points using mRNA-Seq. The pathway analysis tool GoSeq identified KEGG pathways enriched by significantly differentially expressed genes elevated at both time points. Novel candidate genes of inflammatory resolution were subsequently validated in additional postpartum animals using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR).