Expression of protein kinase B and glycogen synthase kinase 3β in mouse uterine horn during the process of physiological progesterone withdrawal

SHI Cancan; YU Mingming; ZHANG Xianping; CHEN Ligang; WANG Qianxing

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2017.19.003

Abstract：Objective To observe the expression of protein kinase B (Akt) and glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) in the uterine tissues of mouse models in the process of physiological progesterone withdrawal.Methods We selected 90 non-mating healthy adult female C57BL/6J mice to make the physiological progesterone withdrawal models.Ten mice were killed at 0, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 32, 40, and 48 h (The physiological progesterone withdrawal cycle in mice is 48 h) to collect uterine horns.The gene expression levels of Akt and GSK3β were detected by real-time PCR.The protein expression levels of total Akt, phosphorylated AKT and phosphorylated GSK-3β were detected by Western blotting.Results Over the time of progesterone withdrawal, the expression of Akt mRNA and protein gradually decreased (reached the minimum at 20 h) and then gradually increased.The expression of GSK3β mRNA and protein at 8 h was higher than that at 0 h (P<0.05).Over the time of progesterone withdrawal, the expression of GSK mRNA and protein decreased (reached the minimum at 24 h) and then gradually increased.The expression of Akt and GSK3β mRNA at 20 h was lower than that at 0 and 48 h (both P<0.05).The expression of p-Akt and p-GSK-3β at 20 h decreased as compared with that at 0 h (both P<0.05).The expression of p-GSK-3β protein in mouse uterine tissues at 20 h decreased as compared with that at 8 h (P<0.05).The expression of p-Akt and p-GSK3β protein at 48 h increased as compared with that at 20 h (all P<0.05).Conclusions Over the time of progesterone withdrawal, the expression of Akt gradually decreases and then increases in the uterine tissues of mouse models.Meanwhile, the expression of GSK3β first increases, then decreases, and finally increases again.Akt/GSK3β signal pathway may play an important role in the process of progesterone withdrawal.