Effects of Methylparaben on Endometrial Decidualization in Mice during Early Pregnancy

This study focused on whether MP (Methylparaben), the most widely used of PBs, had effects on endometriosis decidualization in early pregnancy, resulting in adverse pregnancy outcomes. In this study, on the first day of pregnancy, CD1 mice were given 0, 10.0, 62.5, 250.0 and 1 000.0 mg/kg of MP by continuous oral feed-ing. On the seventh day of pregnancy, mice were killed. Serum was collected for estrogen and progesterone level detection by ELISA. Uterine tissue was collected and embryo quantity and quality were observed. Protein expres-sion levels of decidual markers such as BMP2, MMP2, MMP9 and HOXA10 were detected by immunohistochem-istry and Western blot. Under 1 000.0 mg/kg MP exposure, the number of mice embryos decreased significantly on the seventh day of pregnancy (P<0.05), which suggested that a high dose of MP had adverse effects on the process of endometrial decidualization of mice during early pregnancy. Immunohistochemistry and Western blot results showed that the high dose (1 000.0 mg/kg) compared with 0 mg/kg group, protein expression of decidual markers BMP2, MMP2, MMP9, and HOXA10 significantly reduced. Serum estrogen and progesterone levels also decreased obviously by ELISA (P<0.05). Exposure to high dose (1 000.0 mg/kg) of MP in early pregnancy had adverse ef-fects on endometrial decidualization function in mice, leading to adverse pregnancy outcome.