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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Miguel VelazquezORCiD, Paul Thompson, Dr Achim Treumann
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Pregnancy establishment in mammals requires a complex sequence of events, including bi-lateral embryo-maternal communication, leading up to implantation. This is the time when most pregnancy loss occurs in mammals (including humans and food production species) and dysregulation in embryo-maternal communication contributes to pregnancy loss. Embryo-derived factors modify the function of the endometrium for pregnancy success. We hypothesise that these previously unexplored conceptus-derived proteins may be involved in altering the function of the endometrium to facilitate early pregnancy events in mammals with different early pregnancy phenotypes. Here, we show that protein disulphide-isomerase (PDI) is a highly conserved protein among mammals and provide evidence for a species-specific role for PDI in endometrial function in mammals with different implantation strategies. We show how PDI alters the endometrial transcriptome in human and bovine in vitro in a species-specific manner and using a microfluidic approach we demonstrate that it alters the secretome capability of the endometrium. We also provide evidence from in vitro assays using human-derived cells that MNS1, a transcript commonly downregulated in response to PDI in human and bovine endometrial epithelial cells, may be involved in the attachment phase of implantation. We propose that the trophoblast-derived protein PDI, is involved in supporting the modulation of the uterine luminal fluid secreted by the endometrium to support conceptus nourishment, and in the process of embryo attachment to the uterine lumen for pregnancy success in mammals.
Author(s): Tinning H, Taylor A, Wang D, Pullinger A, Oikonomou G, Velazquez MA, Thompson P, Treumann A, Ruane PT, O'Connell M, Forde N
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Biology of Reproduction
Year: 2026
Pages: epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 04/12/2025
Acceptance date: 17/11/2025
Date deposited: 14/01/2026
ISSN (print): 0006-3363
ISSN (electronic): 1529-7268
Publisher: Oxford University Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/biolre/ioaf263
DOI: 10.1093/biolre/ioaf263
Data Access Statement: All transcriptomic data is currently being uploaded to GEO (GSE308141). The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE (58) partner repository with the dataset identifier PXD067948.
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