Expression data from rat endosalpinx at 3 hours after mating

In the mammalian oviduct, mating regulates sperm storage, egg transport, fertilization, early embryonic development and estradiol metabolism. However, the main molecules responsible for these processes are poorly understood. Herein, we used Affymetrix microarrays to conduct a transcriptomic analysis of the endosalpinx at 3 h after mating and used Qiagen´s Ingenuity Pathway Analysis to perform network modeling to identify the main mating-activated cellular processes in the endosalpinx and the possible upstream regulators of the mating-induced transcriptional response. Females in pro-estrus were kept isolated (unmated rats) or were caged with fertile males at 2200 h of pro-estrus. Thirty minutes after caging with males, the presence of spermatozoa in the vaginal smear or a vaginal plug was verified. Females with spermatozoa or a vaginal plug were designated mated rats and remained caged with the males until 0130 h of estrus, 3 h after mating. Under our environmental and experimental conditions, at 3 h after mating, sperm would have arrived in the oviduct, and ovulation would have occurred approximately 5 h later. Unmated and mated rats were sacrificed at 0130 h of estrus or 3 h after mating. Then, the endosalpinx was isolated from the oviducts and stored in TRIZOL reagent until processing. We used six chips to hybridize six individual samples; 3 of them were samples from unmated rats, and 3 were samples from mated rats (N = 3 per group). We follow the manufacturer’s instructions.