Fig. 5.

Decidualisation defects are evident in the pre-receptive uterus. a Heatmap of differentially expressed genes in E3.5 uteri of young and aged females that were mated with vasectomised males. Two independent samples per uterus dissected from corresponding regions were assessed per animal, resulting in six sequencing samples from a total of three animals in each age group. b Examples of key regulatory genes in decidualisation that exhibit significantly divergent expression between uteri of young and aged females. Values are normalised for total read counts and displayed as mean ± S.E.M. (n = 3). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 (two-tailed t test). c Venn diagrams of genes commonly up-regulated or down-regulated in uteri of aged E3.5 females and in knockouts for Bmp2 and Pgr. d Gene ontology and enrichment analyses of genes differentially up-regulated or down-regulated between E3.5 uteri of young and aged females. e Proliferation assay of isolated uterine stromal cells on 4 consecutive days after plating. Cells from aged females exhibit significant proliferation defects (mean ± S.E.M., n = 4). Two-way ANOVA with Holm-Sidak’s multiple comparisons test. f Ki67 staining of E3.5 uteri of young and aged females. Arrows point to luminal epithelium. STR = stromal cell compartment, LE = luminal epithelium. Scale bar: 200 µm