Developmental trajectory of the mouse transcriptome following placental allopregnanolone insufficiency in the somatosensosry cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum

This study investigates the developmental impact of placental allopregnanolone (ALLO) insufficiency on the mouse brain transcriptome in an age-, sex-, and region-specific manner. We generated mice with reduced ALLO levels by specifically deleting the gene encoding the synthetic enzyme for ALLO (Akr1c14) in trophoblasts using an Akr1c14-floxed mouse with a Cyp19a-Cre mouse. The somatosensory cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum of both WT and plKO mice were collected from males and females at postnatal days 0, 7, 15, and 30. Libraries were prepared using the Illumina TruSeq Stranded mRNA Library prep kit and sequenced on an Illumina NovaSeq sequencer with 2 x 100 bp paired-end cycles. The analysis reveals sex- and region-specific transcriptomic changes following reduced placental ALLO, with differentially expressed genes associated with inflammatory signaling.