Project description
The role of the mesentery during pregnancy
Pregnancy triggers remarkable changes in maternal organs, including substantial growth of the intestine to support the increased nutritional demands of the developing offspring. Recent evidence suggests that the mesentery tissue that anchors the intestine within the body cavity also undergoes significant remodelling during reproduction. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the Mesentery-MORPH project investigates how and why the mesentery remodels during pregnancy and lactation in mice. Using histological analysis, transcriptomics and genetic tools, researchers will identify the molecular signals orchestrating this process. Findings will provide the first detailed characterisation of mesentery plasticity and reveal its previously overlooked role in reproductive physiology.
Objective
Reproduction involves significant resizing of many maternal organs, including the intestine. While previous studies indicate that maternal gut growth supports offspring viability, contributions of surrounding tissues remain largely unexplored. The mesentery–a continuous, fan-shaped peritoneal fold anchoring the intestine to the body cavity–is composed of two layers of mesothelial cells encasing a complex stroma. Although essential during intestinal development, the adult mesentery is largely regarded as a structural scaffold and is rarely considered in the context of whole-body physiology and homeostasis. Intriguingly, the mesentery exhibits plasticity in adults during injury and disease, suggesting that its developmental potential can be reactivated by specific signals.
While characterising the reproductive remodelling of the intestine, the host lab has observed that the surrounding tissues – including the mesentery – also grow. Building on these observations, I will investigate how the adult mesentery actively remodels during pregnancy and lactation and identify molecular signals orchestrating this process. Using mice as a model, histological and transcriptomic analyses will be combined to characterize region-specific changes in mesentery during female reproduction. Subsequently, the role of candidate genes or hormones in regulating mesentery resizing will be interrogated using ex-vivo mesentery culture and in vivo tissue-specific conditional knockouts.
By characterising and understanding the mechanistic basis of mesentery reproductive remodelling, this work will provide the first detailed description of the murine mesentery and offer new insights into the plasticity and physiological role of this largely understudied organ.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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NW1 1AT London
United Kingdom
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