Embryo Implantation is Blocked by Intraperitoneal Injection with Anti-LIF Antibody in Mice

Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is essential for embryo implantation in mice and plays an important role in other mammals including humans. Intraperitoneal (ip) injections with anti-LIF antibody (7.5 mu g/g body weight, 3 times) between D3 (D1 = day of vaginal plug detection) and D4 effectively blocked embryo implantation; complete inhibition was achieved in C57BL/6J mice, and implantation was dramatically reduced in ICR mice (reduced to 27%). Normal rabbit IgG used as the control did not disturb embryo implantation. Anti-LIF antibody was localized not only in the stroma, but also in the luminal epithelium and the glandular lumen after ip injections. Growth-arrested blastocysts were recovered from the uterus without any implantation sites in both strains. Blastocysts made contact with the LE on the antimesome-trial side; however, uterine stromal cells did not undergo secondary decidual reaction, and the uterine lumen was open, even at D7. Several regions of decidualization in ICR mice treated with anti-LIF antibody were smaller than those of the control, and development of blastocysts was delayed. The expression of LIF-regulated genes, such as immune-responsive gene-1 and insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3, was significantly decreased in C57BL/6J mice treated with anti-LIF antibody compared with the control, but not in ICR mice. The present study demonstrated that simple ip injections of an antibody are sufficient to block one of the important factors involved in embryo implantation in mice, and this method should also be easily applicable to the investigation of other factors involved in implantation.