Gene expression profiling of C/EBP- and STAT3-deficient human endometrial stromal cells (HESC)

Our previous studies have shown that C/EBP plays a critical role in human endometrial stromal decidualization. In order to identify the molecular pathways regulated by C/EBP during decidualization, we performed gene expression profiling using RNA isolated from normal and C/EBP-deficient human endometrial stromal cells. The microarray results revealed that several key regulators of stromal differentiation, such as BMP2, Wnt4, IL-11R and STAT3, operate downstream of C/EBP during decidualization. Further studies revealed that STAT3 is a direct target of C/EBP and plays an important role in cytokine signal during the decidualization process. Gene expression profiling, using STAT3-deficient HESCs, showed an extensive overlap of pathways downstream of STAT3 and C/EBP during stromal cell differentiation.

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Wang W, Taylor RN, Bagchi IC, Bagchi MK