Finally, only few data show that sex does not influence human infections: this has been reported for cerebrospinal and soft tissue infections. The molecular mechanisms that underlie the differences between males and females in bacterial infections are only in part characterized. As sexual BMN673 hormones may play a major role in the transcriptional responses to C. burnetii infection in male and female mice, we investigated the effect of castration on these responses. Castration shortened the distance between uninfected and infected males, reflecting less pronounced changes in gene expression. ACh interaction with GABAergic interneurons through a7 nAChRs also contributes to the modulation of sensory responses. The rapid desensitization and high calcium permeability properties of a7 nAChRs could also play a key role in cortical synaptic plasticity, although this action has not been investigated in V1. The MER20 enhancer region also includes several binding sites for abdominal-B related Hox proteins. Expression of the Abd-B related HoxA genes HoxA-10 and HoxA-11 along the paramesonephric duct is essential for the development and function of the female reproductive tract. These genes continue to be expressed in the adult uterus and are required for successful blastocyst implantation in the mouse suggesting that they play an active role in the regulation of decidual gene expression. We previously observed a cooperative interaction of HoxA-11 with FOXO1A in regulating decidual PRL expression. In this study we further characterize the ability of HoxA-11 to activate decidual PRL expression using siRNA-mediated knockdown, HoxA-11 overexpression and reporter gene assays. The results indicate that HoxA-11 is an intrinsic repressor of PRL expression but when combined with FOXO1A switches to a potent activator. Based on our own and published knockout, knockdown, functional and physical interaction data, we infer a decidual-specific enhanceosome that potentially regulates a battery of genes involved in endometrial differentiation such as PRL. MicroRNAs consist of 18-22 nucleotide RNA molecules with post-transcriptional gene silencing activity. Most commonly they control gene expression through association with the 39-untranslated region of genes and inhibit protein translation. The miR-185, however, could suppress the mRNA expression of cell cycle regulating genes such as CDK6 and AKT1. The commonly regulated gene sets by all three growth suppressive miRNAs are not so many and not so strongly related to the cell cycle regulation. These results suggested that the three miRNAs regulate distinct cellular signaling pathways. Since miRNA has a wide range of targets in a cell and since the extent of suppression of the target expression by miRNA is generally moderate, the function of miRNAs should be considered as the ”fine tuning” of gene expression in mammalian cells.