Understanding conceptus–maternal interactions: what tools do we need to develop?

Abstract

Communication between the maternal endometrium and developing embryo/conceptus is critical to support successful pregnancy to term. Studying the peri-implantation period of pregnancy is critical as this is when most pregnancy loss occurs in cattle. Our current understanding of these interactions is limited, due to the lack of appropriate in vitro models to assess these interactions. The endometrium is a complex and heterogeneous tissue that is regulated in a transcriptional and translational manner throughout the oestrous cycle. While there are in vitro models to study endometrial function, they are static and 2D in nature or explant models and are limited in how well they recapitulate the in vivo endometrium. Recent developments in organoid systems, microfluidic approaches, extracellular matrix biology, and in silico approaches provide a new opportunity to develop in vitro systems that better model the in vivo scenario. This will allow us to investigate in a more high-throughput manner the fundamental molecular interactions that are required for successful pregnancy in cattle.

Understanding bovine embryo elongation: a transcriptomic study of trophoblastic vesicles

“…Such data could be combined with other models of tissue elongation in order to highlight common themes, including patterning, spatiotemporal cell fate, or physical forces that enable proper morphogenesis ( Horne-Badovinac, 2014 ; Weng et al, 2022 ; Adler et al, 2023 ). Taken together, our results provide useful information for the future analyses of the factors that coordinate the conserved morphogenetic processes at work during bovine conceptus development, processes that one may evaluate in the coming years through novel cell culture modes ( Walsh et al, 2023 ), cocultures ( Wei et al, 2023 ), or in silico predictive models ( Butt et al, 2023 ).…”