Regulation of porcupine-dependent Wnt signaling is essential for uterine development and function.

Abstract

Six members of the Wnt family are expressed in the female reproductive tract. Their collective function ensures proper development of the uterus, preparing it for pregnancy during adulthood. Here, we take advantage of the fact that Porcn, a prerequisite for all Wnt secretion, is located on the X chromosome, to generate females that were mosaic for Porcn throughout the reproductive tract. Porcnflox/+ females were mated with progesterone receptor (Pgr)-Cre males (PgrCre/+ ) to generate females that were heterozygous for Porcupine in all tissues of the female reproductive tract, resulting in mosaicism due to random X-inactivation. We demonstrated that Porcn mosaic females are extremely subfertile and exhibit a large spectrum of phenotypes ranging from morphologically normal uteri to uteri with extremely enlarged cystic glands. Decreased fertility in Porcupine mosaic females was not associated with phenotype severity and was observed regardless of whether or not cystic glands were enlarged. By crossing-in a GFP reporter on the wild-type X chromosome, we were able to correlate endometrial gland hyperplasia with a mostly Porcupine mutant stroma, demonstrating the role of stromal Wnts in the regulation of endometrial gland proliferation. Finally, we demonstrated that fertility issues within mosaic females were due to a reduced response to estrogen and to abnormal Tcf/Lef signaling across the mesometrial-anti-mesometrial axis during the window of implantation.