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The expression of immune-regulatory genes in rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, during a natural outbreak of proliferative kidney disease (PKD)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2003

J. W. HOLLAND
Affiliation:
Scottish Fish Immunology Research Centre, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Zoology Building, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen, AB24 2TZ, UK
C. R. W. GOULD
Affiliation:
Schering-Plough Aquaculture, Aquaculture Centre, Saffron Walden, Essex, CB10 1EJ, UK
C. S. JONES
Affiliation:
Scottish Fish Immunology Research Centre, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Zoology Building, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen, AB24 2TZ, UK
L. R. NOBLE
Affiliation:
Scottish Fish Immunology Research Centre, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Zoology Building, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen, AB24 2TZ, UK
C. J. SECOMBES
Affiliation:
Scottish Fish Immunology Research Centre, School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Zoology Building, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen, AB24 2TZ, UK
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Abstract

Proliferative kidney disease (PKD) is a parasitic infection of salmonid fish characterized by an apparently abnormal immune response to the presence of the myxozoan parasite, Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae. In order to examine the nature of the immune response at the molecular level, the expression of a range of immune regulatory genes, including cytokines and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 was examined in naive unexposed fish and in naive fish exposed to parasite-infected water at three points during the course of a natural outbreak of PKD. Since fish with advanced PKD pathology generally exhibit increased susceptibility to secondary infections which is typical of stress/cortisol-mediated immune suppression, a further aim of this work was to examine in vitro the influence of the glucocorticoid cortisol on the bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced expression of the trout cytokine genes studied. Two weeks after the initial sampling, naive exposed fish showed a specific profile of up-regulated tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α2, COX-2 and, to a lesser extent, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 expression. As the disease pathology increased, TNF-α2 and COX-2 expression returned to normal levels. Stress levels of cortisol suppressed the LPS inducibility of pro-inflammatory cytokine genes, although TGF-β1 and TNF-α2 appeared to be refractory. These data demonstrate that specific immune responses at the molecular level are affected during PKD infection, with the cortisol suppression of cytokine expression in vitro providing a possible link to PKD-mediated cytokine down-regulation and immune suppression.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Table 1. Primers used to amplify rainbow trout immune-regulatory genes

Figure 1

Fig. 1. Expression of immune-regulatory genes in kidney tissue samples from naive control fish (group 1) and naive parasite-exposed fish (group 2) sampled during the clinical stages of infection (10-07-01). Total RNA was extracted and reverse transcribed. cDNA templates from 8 fish per group were titrated by reference to the β-actin gene prior to the amplification of immune-regulatory genes by PCR. Swelling indices for each fish per group are illustrated. The number of PCR cycles required to optimize each gene are indicated in brackets.

Figure 2

Fig. 2. Boxplots illustrating the median and spread of pixel density values, against swelling index, of bands detected following PCR with specific primers for (A) COX-2, (B) TNF-α2 and (C) TGF-β1 using cDNAs generated from the sampling of naive parasite-exposed fish. Eight fish were sampled and assigned swelling indices on the 26-06-01, 10-07-01 and 01-08-01 respectively. Significant differences between swelling indices are denoted by boxes with no letters (a,b,c) in common (P<0·05).

Figure 3

Fig. 3. The impact of cortisol on the LPS-induced expression of immune-regulatory genes in head kidney leucocytes in vitro. Cells pooled from three individual trout were incubated with or without exogenous cortisol (150 or 300 ng/ml) for a 1 h pre-incubation followed by a further 3 h incubation in the presence or absence of 10 μg/ml LPS at 22 °C. Following β-actin titration, immune-regulatory genes were amplified by PCR (A). Pixel density values of bands detected in the presence (+) and absence (−) of LPS were plotted against the respective gene amplified by PCR (B).