Figure 6.

Working model for the regulation of blastocyst formation by the autocrine interaction of FGF2/FGFR2 activated PKC/p38 pathway in mouse TEs. Binding of FGF to cell surface heparin-like molecules in an autocrine fashion, FGF2 activates FGFR2, which stimulates phospholipase C (PLC) to generate diacylglycerol (DAG). In turn, DAG activates protein kinase C (PKC), which stimulates p38 activation, triggering transcription factor to regulate the expression of E-cadherin, ZO-1, Na-K ATPase, ENaCα, AQP3 and AQP9, which is required for blastocyst formation.