Mouse uterus peptidylarginine deiminase is expressed in decidual cells during pregnancy

Peptidylarginine deiminase is localized in the cytosol of the luminal and glandular epithelia of the nonpregnant murine uterus and its expression is regulated by sex hormones [Takahara et al., [1989]: J Biol Chem 264, 13361-13368; Takahara et al. [1992]: J Biol Chem 267,520-525]. Here, we demonstrate that changes occur in the enzyme level in the mouse uterus during pregnancy and parturition. After a rapid decrease in enzymatic activity from day 1 to day 5 of pregnancy, the activity sharply increased during the middle stage of pregnancy (day 8 to day 10) and then gradually decreased during late pregnancy. Expression of the enzyme occurred only in the decidual cells that had differentiated from endometrial stroma cells surrounding the implantation site. The immunochemical properties of the enzyme expressed in the decidualized cells was indistinguishable from those in the uterine epithelia. These results suggest that peptidylarginine deiminase has important roles in decidual cells and not just in the epithelia of the nonpregnant uterus. Moreover, the level of enzyme activity increased slightly just before parturition (day 17), and then decreased during the 12 h period after parturition. The tissue localization of the enzyme expressed around the time of parturition changed from decidua to the luminal and glandular epithelia. Semiquantitative analyses of the enzyme mRNA content in the pregnant uteri showed a remarkable increase from day 7 leading to the onset of the enzyme synthesis in the decidual cells. After reaching the maximal level at day 12, small peaks in the mRNA level were observed at two times during late pregnancy. Since these serial changes in the mRNA level did not correlate with changes in sex hormones, the expression of decidual peptidylarginine deiminase seemed to be controlled by factors other than sex hormones.