Abstract #M38

# M38
Transcriptome profiling of the endometrium of healthy beef cows postpartum.
Robmay Garcia*1, Dianelys Gonzalez-Pena1, Sandra L. Rodriguez-Zas1, 1University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL.

The uterine cervix remains open for 7 to 10 d postpartum, which facilitates bacterial infection resulting in $650M in losses to the US dairy industry. Understanding the molecular profiles of healthy endometrial involution and regeneration can help understand bacterial clearance and inflammation resolution mechanisms. The objective of this study is to characterize the endometrium transcriptome of beef cows at 15d and 30d postpartum. Individual paired-end reads libraries were mapped to the Bos taurus reference genome (Btau_4.6.1) using Tophat v2.0.12. In total 8,282 isoform transcripts pertaining to 8,124 genes were identified and 1002 isoform transcripts pertaining to 995 genes were found to be differentially expressed (false discovery rate-adjusted P-value <0.05) between 15d and 30d using Cufflinks v2.2.1. Among the top 50 differentially abundant transcripts T-Box 21 (TBX21), T cell receptor associated transmembrane adaptor 1 (TRAT1) and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) were overexpressed at 15d relative to 30d. TBX21 controls the expression of the hallmark Th1 cytokine interferon-gamma IFNG. TRAT1 Stabilizes the TCR T-cell antigen receptor / CD3 complex at the surface of T-cells and IDO play a role in processes such as antimicrobial defense and immunoregulation. Functional analysis of the differentially expressed genes using DAVID identified 10 enriched (enrichment score >2) functional category clusters including the Gene Ontology molecular functions for regulation of cell death and apoptosis, cytokine and chemokine activity, inflammatory response; Gene Ontology biological processes of immune system development, leukocyte activation, proliferation and differentiation, among associated immunological. These categories confirm that endometrial involution elicits changes associated with the inflammatory response and immunological activation. Our results offer insights on the transcriptome changes during normal endometrium involution.

Key Words: endometrium, involution, transcriptome