RESEARCH ARTICLE Oviductal estrogen receptor a signaling prevents protease-mediated embryo death Wipawee Winuthayanon1,2*, Miranda L Bernhardt1, Elizabeth Padilla-Banks1, Page H Myers3, Matthew L Edin4, Fred B Lih5, Sylvia C Hewitt1, Kenneth S Korach1, Carmen J Williams1* 1Reproductive and Developmental Biology Laboratory, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, United States; 2School of Molecular Biosciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, United States; 3Comparative Medicine Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, United States; 4Immunity, Inflammation and Disease Laboratory, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, United States; 5Epigenetics and Stem Cell Biology Laboratory, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, United States Abstract Development of uterine endometrial receptivity for implantation is orchestrated by cyclic steroid hormone-mediated signals. It is unknown if these signals are necessary for oviduct function in supporting fertilization and preimplantation development. Here we show that conditional knockout (cKO) mice lacking estrogen receptor a (ERa) in oviduct and uterine epithelial *For correspondence: cells have impaired fertilization due to a dramatic reduction in sperm migration. In addition, all
[email protected] successfully fertilized eggs die before the 2-cell stage due to persistence of secreted innate (WW);
[email protected] immune mediators including proteases. Elevated protease activity in cKO oviducts causes (CJW) premature degradation of the zona pellucida and embryo lysis, and wild-type embryos transferred Competing interests: The into cKO oviducts fail to develop normally unless rescued by concomitant transfer of protease authors declare that no inhibitors.