Characterization of Toll-Like Receptor 9 expression during Mouse Preimplantation Development

Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) is a pathogenic sensing receptor that binds to various pathogenic components, recognizing foreign genomic DNA. Numerous studies have reported the functions of TLR9 in somatic cells, but its feature in germ cells and early embryos has not been well understood. In this study, to characterize TLR9 during preimplantation development, we investigated the mRNA and protein expression dynamics of TLR9 in mouse oocytes and embryos.