Involvement of CCR10 in Reproductive Function of Female Mice
Open Access
- Author:
- Corcoran, Kelly Isabella
- Area of Honors:
- Animal Sciences
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Joy Lee Pate, Thesis Supervisor
Troy Ott, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- animal science
reproduction
knockout mice
CCR10 - Abstract:
- The key role that chemokines play in cellular signaling is beginning to be understood. Chemokine receptor CCR10 elicits a homing effect on skin intraepithelial lymphocytes (SIELs) that ensures gamma-delta (γδ) T cells successfully migrate from the fetal thymus to the epidermis. This receptor was associated with dermatological problems such as contact dermatitis and psoriasis. Recently, it was determined that CCR10-/- knockout mice demonstrated some reproductive problems such as decreased natural killer (NK) cells in the uteri of C57/Bl6 mice and failure to produce CCR10-/- knockout fetuses in C129 mice. The current study examined the reproductive implications of these differences in CCR10 in C57/Bl6 and C129 mice. The CCR10+/- and CCR10-/- C57/Bl6 mice demonstrated normal estrous cycles when compared to wild-type mice, but yielded lower average body weights per fetus than wild-type mothers. The CCR10+/- C129 females lacked CCR10-/- fetuses in their litters, and both immunohistochemistry and blastocyst genotyping failed to provide results. Future research should perform immunohistochemistry to evaluate γδ T and NK cell populations in both CCR10 C57/Bl6 and C129 mice samples, as well as blastocyst collection in CCR10 C129 mice to pinpoint the gestation day of CCR10-/- fetal loss.