Epigenetic programming of porcine endometrial function and the lactocrine hypothesis

Epigenetic programs controlling development of the female reproductive tract (FRT) are influenced by the effects of naturally occurring bioactive agents on patterns of gene expression in FRT tissues during organizationally critical periods of foetal and perinatal life. Aberrations in such important cellular and molecular events, as may occur with exposure to natural or manmade steroid or peptide receptor-modulating agents, disrupt the developmental program and can change the developmental trajectory of FRT tissues, including the endometrium, with lasting consequences. In the pig, as in other mammals, maternal programming of FRT development begins pre-natally and is completed post-natally, when maternal effects on development can be communicated via signals transmitted in milk. Studies involving relaxin (RLX), a prototypic milk-borne morphoregulatory factor (MbF), serve as the basis for ongoing efforts to identify maternal programming events that affect uterine and cervical tissues in the neonatal pig. Data support the lactocrine hypothesis for delivery of MbFs to neonates as a specific consequence of nursing. Components of a maternally driven lactocrine mechanism for RLX-mediated signalling in neonatal FRT tissues, including evidence that milk-borne RLX is delivered into the neonatal circulation where it can act on RLX receptor (RXFP1)-positive neonatal tissues to affect their development, are in place in the pig. The fact that all newborn mammals drink milk extends the timeframe of maternal influence on neonatal development across many species. Thus, lactocrine transmission of milk-borne developmental signals is an element of the maternal epigenetic programming equation that deserves further study.