The Guide to Investigation of Mouse Pregnancy

Features:

• Provides instruction on how to collect pre-clinical data on pregnancy in mouse models for eventual use in human applications
• Describes the angiogenic tree the mother’s uterus develops to support pregnancy and the monitoring of pregnancy-induced cardiovascular changes
• Educates readers on placental cell lineages, decidual development including immune cells, epigenetic regulation, gene imprinting, stem cells, birth and lactation
• Discusses how stress, environmental toxicants and other manipulations impact upon placental function and pregnancy success

Table of Contents:

1. Implant site dissections
2. Microscopic anatomy of the pregnant mouse uterus throughout gestation
3. Anatomy of the mouse placenta throughout gestation
4. Whole-mount immunohistochemistry of early implantation sites
5. Magnetic resonance imaging of the mouse placenta

1. First cell fate decisions in early development: towards establishment of the trophoblast lineage
2. Tetraploid complementation assay
3. Biology of the ectoplacental cone
4. Decidualization and endometrial extracellular matrix remodeling
5. Postimplantation development of the chorioallantoic placenta
6. Unique features of endometrial dynamics during pregnancy
7. Pathology analysis of the placenta
8. Changes in structures and relationships of trophoblasts, leukocytes, and maternal vessels in implantation sites to midpregnancy
9. The uteroplacental, fetoplacental, and yolk sac circulations in the mouse
10. Physiological exchange across mouse placenta
11. Hypoxia-associated regulation within implantation sites
12. Leukocyte population dynamics and functions at the maternal
13. fetal interface
14. In vivo tracking of mononuclear cells in the virgin uterus and in implantation sites
15. Microchimerism in mouse pregnancy
16. Systems biology analyses of the placenta
17. Contribution of placental genomic imprinting and identification of imprinted genes
18. Epigenetics of placental development and function
19. Genome-wide analysis of the mouse deciduoma
20. Conditional gene deletion in the placenta using the Cre-loxP system
21. Genetic engineering of mice to investigate uterine function in early pregnancy
22. Lentivirus-mediated transduction of optical reporter genes in blastocysts for placental studies
23. Blood pressure regulation during mouse pregnancy
24. Intravital imaging of vasoactivity in the uterine arterial tree during pregnancy
25. Multimodal imaging of the mouse placenta
26. Regulation of parturition
27. Cervical changes accompanying birth
28. Peri-partum changes to mouse pubic symphysis
29. Mammary gland morphogenesis and function during pregnancy
30. Gestational programming of the cardiovascular system
31. Maternal stress-mediated gene expression changes in the mouse placenta: a mosaic hypothesis of epigenesis
32. Pregnancy alterations from environmental pollutants

1. Lentivirus transduction of gene tags in blastocysts
2. Tetraploid complementation assay
3. Pseudopregnant bead-induced mouse deciduoma model
4. Ectoplacental cone isolation, culture and assessment
5. Layer-enriched tissue dissection of the mouse placenta in late gestation
6. Protocols for placental histology
7. Best practice for quantifying the microscopic structure of mouse placenta: the stereological approach
8. Electron microscopy and immunoelectromicroscopy protocols
9. Laser capture microdissection
10. Immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry
11. Nonradioactive in situ hybridization: optimization for tissue sections from pregnant uteri and placenta during the first half of pregnancy
12. Whole mount in situ immunohistochemistry
13. Guidelines for evaluation of reproductive and developmental endpoints
14. Flow cytometric analysis of myometrial and decidual cell suspensions
15. Uterine leukocyte isolation and culture
16. Scanning electron microscopy and micro-computed tomography imaging of the utero- and fetoplacental circulations
17. Radiotelemetry in mouse pregnancy
18. Ex vivo perfusion of the mouse placenta for maternal
19. fetal interaction studies during pregnancy
20. Evaluation of placental transport function
21. Hypoxia-associated regulation within implantation sites
22. Method to locate the uterine artery in mice for micro-ultrasound doppler blood velocity examination
23. Two-photon intravital microscopy of the virgin and pregnant mouse uterus
24. Intravital imaging of vasoactivity in the uterine arterial vasculature tree during pregnancy
25. MRI, intra-vital, and ex-vivo fluorescence microscopy of the mouse uterine vasculature and placenta
26. Assessment of changes in the peripartum cervix
27. Pubic symphysis evaluation
28. Labor and preterm labor
29. Epithelial transplantation into the cleared mammary fat pad
30. Dietary and hypoxic protocols that alter placental gene expression in response to maternal stress
31. Parental-specific gene expression and epigenetic analyses of imprinted genes in mouse placenta
32. A method for obtaining epigenomic data
33. Methods for genetic engineering in mice