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Ballester M, Jové-Juncà T, Pascual A, López-Serrano S, Crespo-Piazuelo D, Hernández-Banqué C, González-Rodríguez O, Ramayo-Caldas Y, Quintanilla R. Genetic architecture of innate and adaptive immune cells in pigs. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1058346. [PMID: 36814923 PMCID: PMC9939681 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1058346] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2022] [Accepted: 01/16/2023] [Indexed: 02/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Pig industry is facing new challenges that make necessary to reorient breeding programs to produce more robust and resilient pig populations. The aim of the present work was to study the genetic determinism of lymphocyte subpopulations in the peripheral blood of pigs and identify genomic regions and biomarkers associated to them. For this purpose, we stained peripheral blood mononuclear cells to measure ten immune-cell-related traits including the relative abundance of different populations of lymphocytes, the proportions of CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells, and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ T cells from 391 healthy Duroc piglets aged 8 weeks. Medium to high heritabilities were observed for the ten immune-cell-related traits and significant genetic correlations were obtained between the proportion of some lymphocytes populations. A genome-wide association study pointed out 32 SNPs located at four chromosomal regions on pig chromosomes SSC3, SSC5, SSC8, and SSCX as significantly associated to T-helper cells, memory T-helper cells and γδ T cells. Several genes previously identified in human association studies for the same or related traits were located in the associated regions, and were proposed as candidate genes to explain the variation of T cell populations such as CD4, CD8A, CD8B, KLRC2, RMND5A and VPS24. The transcriptome analysis of whole blood samples from animals with extreme proportions of γδ T, T-helper and memory T-helper cells identified differentially expressed genes (CAPG, TCF7L1, KLRD1 and CD4) located into the associated regions. In addition, differentially expressed genes specific of different T cells subpopulations were identified such as SOX13 and WC1 genes for γδ T cells. Our results enhance the knowledge about the genetic control of lymphocyte traits that could be considered to optimize the induction of immune responses to vaccines against pathogens. Furthermore, they open the possibility of applying effective selection programs for improving immunocompetence in pigs and support the use of the pig as a very reliable human biomedical model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Ballester
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Program, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), Torre Marimon, Caldes de Montbui, Spain
| | - Teodor Jové-Juncà
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Program, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), Torre Marimon, Caldes de Montbui, Spain
| | - Afra Pascual
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Program, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), Torre Marimon, Caldes de Montbui, Spain
| | - Sergi López-Serrano
- Unitat mixta d'Investigació IRTA-UAB en Sanitat Animal, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain.,Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), Programa de Sanitat Animal, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Daniel Crespo-Piazuelo
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Program, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), Torre Marimon, Caldes de Montbui, Spain
| | - Carles Hernández-Banqué
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Program, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), Torre Marimon, Caldes de Montbui, Spain
| | - Olga González-Rodríguez
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Program, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), Torre Marimon, Caldes de Montbui, Spain
| | - Yuliaxis Ramayo-Caldas
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Program, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), Torre Marimon, Caldes de Montbui, Spain
| | - Raquel Quintanilla
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Program, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), Torre Marimon, Caldes de Montbui, Spain
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Ramayo-Caldas Y, Zingaretti LM, Pérez-Pascual D, Alexandre PA, Reverter A, Dalmau A, Quintanilla R, Ballester M. Leveraging host-genetics and gut microbiota to determine immunocompetence in pigs. Anim Microbiome 2021; 3:74. [PMID: 34689834 PMCID: PMC8543910 DOI: 10.1186/s42523-021-00138-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2021] [Accepted: 10/12/2021] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The gut microbiota influences host performance playing a relevant role in homeostasis and function of the immune system. The aim of the present work was to identify microbial signatures linked to immunity traits and to characterize the contribution of host-genome and gut microbiota to the immunocompetence in healthy pigs. RESULTS To achieve this goal, we undertook a combination of network, mixed model and microbial-wide association studies (MWAS) for 21 immunity traits and the relative abundance of gut bacterial communities in 389 pigs genotyped for 70K SNPs. The heritability (h2; proportion of phenotypic variance explained by the host genetics) and microbiability (m2; proportion of variance explained by the microbial composition) showed similar values for most of the analyzed immunity traits, except for both IgM and IgG in plasma that was dominated by the host genetics, and the haptoglobin in serum which was the trait with larger m2 (0.275) compared to h2 (0.138). Results from the MWAS suggested a polymicrobial nature of the immunocompetence in pigs and revealed associations between pigs gut microbiota composition and 15 of the analyzed traits. The lymphocytes phagocytic capacity (quantified as mean fluorescence) and the total number of monocytes in blood were the traits associated with the largest number of taxa (6 taxa). Among the associations identified by MWAS, 30% were confirmed by an information theory network approach. The strongest confirmed associations were between Fibrobacter and phagocytic capacity of lymphocytes (r = 0.37), followed by correlations between Streptococcus and the percentage of phagocytic lymphocytes (r = -0.34) and between Megasphaera and serum concentration of haptoglobin (r = 0.26). In the interaction network, Streptococcus and percentage of phagocytic lymphocytes were the keystone bacterial and immune-trait, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Overall, our findings reveal an important connection between gut microbiota composition and immunity traits in pigs, and highlight the need to consider both sources of information, host genome and microbial levels, to accurately characterize immunocompetence in pigs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuliaxis Ramayo-Caldas
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Program, IRTA, Torre Marimón, 08140 Caldes de Montbui, Barcelona Spain
| | - Laura M. Zingaretti
- Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
| | - David Pérez-Pascual
- Unité de Génétique des Biofilms, Institut Pasteur, UMR CNRS2001, Paris, France
| | | | - Antonio Reverter
- CSIRO Agriculture and Food, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4067 Australia
| | - Antoni Dalmau
- Animal Welfare Subprogram, IRTA, 17121 Monells, Girona Spain
| | - Raquel Quintanilla
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Program, IRTA, Torre Marimón, 08140 Caldes de Montbui, Barcelona Spain
| | - Maria Ballester
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Program, IRTA, Torre Marimón, 08140 Caldes de Montbui, Barcelona Spain
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High Heritabilities for Antibiotic Usage Show Potential to Breed for Disease Resistance in Finishing Pigs. Antibiotics (Basel) 2021; 10:antibiotics10070829. [PMID: 34356750 PMCID: PMC8300637 DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics10070829] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2021] [Revised: 07/01/2021] [Accepted: 07/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The use of antimicrobials in animal production is under public debate, mainly due to the risk of transfer of resistance to pathogenic bacteria in humans. Therefore, measures have been taken during the last few decades to reduce antibiotic usage in animals, for instance, by national monitoring programmes and by improving animal health management. Although some initiatives exist in molecular genetic selection, quantitative genetic selection of animals towards decreased antibiotic usage is an underexplored area to reduce antibiotic usage. However, this strategy could yield cumulative effects. In this study, we derived new phenotypes from on-farm parenteral antibiotic records from commercially grown crossbred finishing pigs used in the progeny test of Piétrain terminal sires to investigate the heritability of antibiotics usage. Parenteral antibiotic records, production parameters and pedigree records of 2238 full-sib pens from two experimental farms in Belgium between 2014 and 2020 were analysed. Heritability estimates were moderate (18–44%) for phenotypes derived from all antibiotic treatments, and low (1–15%) for phenotypes derived from treatments against respiratory diseases only. Moreover, genetic correlations between these new phenotypes and mortality were low to moderate (0.08–0.60) and no strong adverse genetic correlations with production traits were found. The high heritabilities and favourable genetic correlations suggest these new phenotypes, derived from on-farm antibiotics records, to be promising for inclusion in future pig breeding programs to breed for a decrease in antibiotics usage.
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Genetic parameters and associated genomic regions for global immunocompetence and other health-related traits in pigs. Sci Rep 2020; 10:18462. [PMID: 33116177 PMCID: PMC7595139 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-75417-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2020] [Accepted: 10/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The inclusion of health-related traits, or functionally associated genetic markers, in pig breeding programs could contribute to produce more robust and disease resistant animals. The aim of the present work was to study the genetic determinism and genomic regions associated to global immunocompetence and health in a Duroc pig population. For this purpose, a set of 30 health-related traits covering immune (mainly innate), haematological, and stress parameters were measured in 432 healthy Duroc piglets aged 8 weeks. Moderate to high heritabilities were obtained for most traits and significant genetic correlations among them were observed. A genome wide association study pointed out 31 significantly associated SNPs at whole-genome level, located in six chromosomal regions on pig chromosomes SSC4, SSC6, SSC17 and SSCX, for IgG, γδ T-cells, C-reactive protein, lymphocytes phagocytic capacity, total number of lymphocytes, mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular haemoglobin. A total of 16 promising functionally-related candidate genes, including CRP, NFATC2, PRDX1, SLA, ST3GAL1, and VPS4A, have been proposed to explain the variation of immune and haematological traits. Our results enhance the knowledge of the genetic control of traits related with immunity and support the possibility of applying effective selection programs to improve immunocompetence in pigs.
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Pena RN, Fernández C, Blasco-Felip M, Fraile LJ, Estany J. Genetic Markers Associated with Field PRRSV-Induced Abortion Rates. Viruses 2019; 11:E706. [PMID: 31374992 PMCID: PMC6723062 DOI: 10.3390/v11080706] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2019] [Revised: 07/30/2019] [Accepted: 07/30/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
In gilts and sows, the more severe clinical manifestation of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) occurs in late gestation and can result in up to a 40% abortion incidence. Despite the known genetic component in resilience to PRRSV, there is scarce information regarding the abortive outcome of this disease. We tested the relationship between eight molecular markers (six from published studies and two identified in the present study in the HDAC6 gene) and the probability of abortion during a PRRSV outbreak, using data from two commercial Landrace x Large White sow farms with an incidence of abortion of 35% and 17%. From the markers tested, USP18_-1533G>A did not segregate in these populations, and CD163_c.3534C>T and HDAC6_g.2360C>T did not affect the abortion rate. In contrast, the minor allele of two markers in SSC4 (WUR1000125 in GBP1 and rs340943904 in GBP5), which lower viremia in growing pigs, and the major alleles of CD163_rs1107556229 and HDAC6_rs325981825 were associated with a lower probability of abortion during PRRSV outbreaks. The more striking result was for the MX1 gene, where the odds ratio of aborting versus not aborting was nine times lower in the sows homozygous for a 275-bp insertion than in the other genotypes. Interactions between markers were not relevant. All together, we bring here the first evidence that mutations in the host genome can predispose or protect from complete reproductive failure in sows infected with PRRSV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ramona N Pena
- Departament de Ciència Animal, Universitat de Lleida - AGROTECNIO Centre, 25198 Lleida, Spain
| | | | | | - Lorenzo J Fraile
- Departament de Ciència Animal, Universitat de Lleida - AGROTECNIO Centre, 25198 Lleida, Spain.
| | - Joan Estany
- Departament de Ciència Animal, Universitat de Lleida - AGROTECNIO Centre, 25198 Lleida, Spain
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A genomic variant in IRF9 is associated with serum cytokine levels in pig. Immunogenetics 2015; 68:67-76. [PMID: 26518782 DOI: 10.1007/s00251-015-0879-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2015] [Accepted: 10/18/2015] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
The interferon regulatory factor 9 (IRF9) gene is a member of the IRF family and has been shown to play functionally diverse roles in the regulation of the immune system. Previous study revealed the IRF9 gene resides within the reported quantitative trait locus (QTLs) for cytokine levels. The aims of this study were to identify genomic variants in IRF9 and to test the association between the variants and cytokine levels in pig. A synonymous single-nucleotide polymorphism (c.459A>G) was identified in exon 4 of the IRF9 gene. Association analysis in 300 piglets (Landrace, n=68; large white, n=158; and Songliao black, n=74) showed that this variant was significantly associated with the level of interferon (IFN)-γ and the ratio of IFN-γ to IL-10 in serum (P<0.05). Relative quantification of messenger RNA (mRNA) revealed that spleen had the highest expression level and individuals with genotype AA had higher expression than those with genotype AG. Transfection-based mRNA stability assay analysis further showed that the mutant allele G could reduce the RNA stability of IRF9. These findings suggest that the SNP (c.459A>G) could be a causative mutation for the association between IRF9 and the serum cytokine levels in swine.
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Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in CD8A and their associations with T lymphocyte subpopulations in pig. Mol Genet Genomics 2015; 290:1447-56. [PMID: 25690570 DOI: 10.1007/s00438-015-1008-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2014] [Accepted: 02/07/2015] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Findings from previous studies suggested that the cluster of the differentiation 8 alpha (CD8A) gene plays a prominent role in human T lymphocyte subpopulations. However, the evidence from pig population is still rare. To determine whether the important role of the CD8A gene is conserved in pig, a candidate gene analysis was performed herein through genotype-phenotype associations. Five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) locating in the regulatory region of porcine CD8A gene were detected and tested for association analysis with seven T lymphocyte subpopulations (proportion of CD4(-)CD8(-), CD4(+)CD8(+), CD4(+)CD8(-), CD4(-)CD8(+), CD4(+), CD8(+), and the ratio of CD4(+) to CD8(+) T cells in peripheral blood) in 382 Large White piglets. After Bonferroni correction for multiple testing, four SNPs were significantly associated with some or all of the seven T lymphocyte subpopulations. Analyses of pairwise D' measures of linkage disequilibrium between all SNPs were also explored. Two haplotype blocks was inferred and the association study on haplotype level revealed similar effects on T lymphocyte subpopulations. In addition, the tissue-specific RNA expression pattern and electrophoretic mobility shift assay offered further explanation of the link between the CD8A gene with porcine T lymphocyte subpopulations. The findings presented here provide strong evidence for associations of CD8A variants with T lymphocyte subpopulations and may be applied in porcine breeding programs.
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Lu X, Fu WX, Luo YR, Ding XD, Zhou JP, Liu Y, Liu JF, Zhang Q. Genome-wide association study for T lymphocyte subpopulations in swine. BMC Genomics 2012; 13:488. [PMID: 22985182 PMCID: PMC3481476 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-13-488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2011] [Accepted: 07/25/2012] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Lymphocytes act as a major component of the adaptive immune system, taking very crucial responsibility for immunity. Differences in proportions of T-cell subpopulations in peripheral blood among individuals under same conditions provide evidence of genetic control on these traits, but little is known about the genetic mechanism of them, especially in swine. Identification of the genetic control on these variants may help the genetic improvement of immune capacity through selection. Results To identify genomic regions responsible for these immune traits in swine, a genome-wide association study was conducted. A total of 675 pigs of three breeds were involved in the study. At 21 days of age, all individuals were vaccinated with modified live classical swine fever vaccine. Blood samples were collected when the piglets were 20 and 35 days of age, respectively. Seven traits, including the proportions of CD4+, CD8+, CD4+CD8+, CD4+CD8−, CD4−CD8+, CD4−CD8− and the ratio of CD4+ to CD8+ T cells were measured at the two ages. All the samples were genotyped for 62,163 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) using the Illumina porcineSNP60k BeadChip. 40833 SNPs were selected after quality control for association tests between SNPs and each immune trait considered based on a single-locus regression model. To tackle the issue of multiple testing in GWAS, 10,000 permutations were performed to determine the chromosome-wise and genome-wise significance levels of association tests. In total, 61 SNPs with chromosome-wise significance level and 3 SNPs with genome-wise significance level were identified. 27 significant SNPs were located within the immune-related QTL regions reported in previous studies. Furthermore, several significant SNPs fell into the regions harboring known immunity-related genes, 14 of them fell into the regions which harbor some known T cell-related genes. Conclusions Our study demonstrated that genome-wide association studies would be a feasible way for revealing the potential genetics variants affecting T-cell subpopulations. Results herein lay a preliminary foundation for further identifying the causal mutations underlying swine immune capacity in follow-up studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Lu
- Key Laboratory Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Science and Technology, National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
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Mapping quantitative trait loci for T lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood in swine. BMC Genet 2011; 12:79. [PMID: 21923905 PMCID: PMC3182951 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2156-12-79] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2011] [Accepted: 09/16/2011] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Increased disease resistance through improved general immune capacity would be beneficial for the welfare and productivity of farm animals. T lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood play an important role in immune capacity and disease resistance in animals. However, very little research to date has focused on quantitative trait loci (QTL) for T lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood in swine. Results In the study, experimental animals consist of 446 piglets from three different breed populations. To identify QTL for T lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood in swine, the proportions of CD4+, CD8+, CD4+CD8+, CD4+CD8-, CD4-CD8+, and CD4-CD8- T cells and the ratio of CD4+:CD8+ T cells were measured for all individuals before and after challenge with modified live CSF (classical swine fever) vaccine. Based on the combined data of individuals from three breed populations, genome-wide scanning of QTL for these traits was performed based on a variance component model, and the genome wide significance level for declaring QTL was determined via permutation tests as well as FDR (false discovery rate) correction. A total of 27 QTL (two for CD4+CD8+, one for CD4+CD8-, three for CD4-CD8+, two for CD4-CD8-, nine for CD4+, two for CD8+, and eight for CD4+:CD8+ ratio) were identified with significance level of FDR < 0.10, of which 11 were significant at the level of FDR < 0.05, including the five significant at FDR < 0.01. Conclusions Within these QTL regions, a number of known genes having potential relationships with the studied traits may serve as candidate genes for these traits. Our findings herein are helpful for identification of the causal genes underlying these immune-related trait and selection for immune capacity of individuals in swine breeding in the future.
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de Groot J, Kruijt L, Scholten JW, Boersma WJA, Buist WG, Engel B, van Reenen CG. Age, gender and litter-related variation in T-lymphocyte cytokine production in young pigs. Immunology 2005; 115:495-505. [PMID: 16011518 PMCID: PMC1782186 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2567.2005.02184.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
The capacity of farm animals to produce cytokines could be an important determinant of robustness and health. From research in rodents and humans it appears that the production and the balance of T helper 1 (Th1) and T helper 2 (Th2)-type cytokines influences susceptibility to autoimmune and infectious diseases. It is known that pigs show a large variation in many immune response parameters. So far the extent of individual variation in the production of Th1- and Th2-type cytokines in commercial outbred pigs has not been reported. In the current experiment we determined mRNA expression, as well as protein production of cytokines in 32 pigs from eight litters. From each litter two male and two female pigs were tested at 2, 5 and 8 weeks of age. Two Th1-type cytokines, interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon (IFN)-gamma, and two Th2-type cytokines, IL-4 and IL-10, were measured after phytohaemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulation of blood mononuclear cells. Cytokine production and the Th1/Th2-ratio were highly variable. The variation in cytokine protein production was moderately consistent across ages, i.e. pigs that produced high levels of cytokine at 2 weeks of age tended to do so as well at 5 and 8 weeks of age. Cytokine production tended to increase with age, and gilts and boars differed in their IL-2/IL-4 ratio. Unexpectedly, age, gender and litter effects often differed for mRNA and protein production data. We hypothesize that cytokine production is a consistent trait in pigs, especially at the protein production level. Future investigations in more animals and across a wider age range are necessary.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna de Groot
- Animal Sciences Group of Wageningen University and Research Centre, Division Animal Husbandry, Lelystad, the Netherlands.
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