Figure 4.

Expression of tumour necrosis factor‐like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK) and fibroblast growth factor‐inducible molecule (Fn14) by uterine natural killer (uNK) cells isolated from mice during early to mid‐pregnancy. Uterine NK cells were isolated using Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA) lectin‐coated magnetic beads. Differential interference contrast images of viable mouse uterine leucocytes attached to the DBA lectin‐coated magnetic beads (a) and after they were detached by the addition of 0·1 m Gal‐NAc (b). Scale bars = 50 μm. The expression of TWEAK and Fn14 in the uNK cells on the indicated days of pregnancy in response to the LPS treatment was analysed by quantitative real‐time RT‐PCR (c, d) and Western blot analysis (e–h). Representative blots are shown in the left panel (e, g) and the histograms in the right panel (f, h) show the results of densitometric analysis of TWEAK and Fn14 expression (normalized to β‐actin to correct for protein loading). The data represent the means ± SEM from at least three independent experiments. Columns with different superscript letters are significantly different (P < 0·05).