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ARS Home » Plains Area » Clay Center, Nebraska » U.S. Meat Animal Research Center » Livestock Bio-Systems » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #296578
Title: Roles of selected nutrients in development of the porcine conceptus during pregnancy

Author
item BAZER, FULLER - Seoul National University
item KIM, JINYOUNG - Seoul National University
item SONG, GWONHWA - Seoul National University
item KA, HAKHYUN - Yonsei University
item WU, GUOYAO - Texas A&M University
item JOHNSON, GREGORY - Texas A&M University
item Vallet, Jeff

Submitted to: Pig Reproduction National Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/22/2013
Publication Date: 6/9/2013
Citation: Bazer, F.W., Kim, J., Song, G., Ka, H., Wu, G., Johnson, G.A., Vallet, J.L. 2013. Roles of selected nutrients in development of the porcine conceptus during pregnancy. In: Rodriquez-Martinez, H., Soede, N.M., Flowers, W.L., editors. Control of Pig Reproduction IX. Leicestershire, UK: Context Products Ltd. pp. 159-174.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Conceptus development in mammals depends on an intra-uterine environment filled with histotroph that includes molecules that are secreted by uterine epithelia and/or selectively transported into the uterine lumen. In pigs, total recoverable glucose, fructose, arginine, leucine and glutamine increase in histotroph with advancing days of the peri-implantation period of pregnancy and in allantoic fluid later in gestation. During pregnancy, the uterine luminal epithelium (LE) and trophectoderm of conceptuses each express specific transporters for glucose. The most abundantly expressed amino acid transporters in uterine LE and trophectoderm are those for glutamate, neutral amino acids and cationic amino acids. These nutrient transporters are also expressed in uterine epithelia and placental tissues of pigs throughout gestation and expression of transporters and accumulation of nutrients in the uterine lumen is affected by progesterone and estradiol. Treatment of porcine trophectoderm cells with glucose, arginine and leucine stimulates the mechanistic target of rapamycin nutrient sensing cell signaling pathway to increase phosphorylation of RPS6K, RPS6 and EIF4EBP1 in the nucleus or cytoplasm to stimulate proliferation, mRNA translation and protein synthesis. Glucose and fructose are equivalent in stimulating proliferation of pig trophectoderm cells and in inducing synthesis of hyaluraonic acid via the hexosamine pathway. The results of our research indicate mechanisms whereby select nutrients act differentially to affect translation of mRNAs for cell signaling molecules that affect conceptus growth, development, and survival during pregnancy in pigs.