Dietary administration of botanicals to modulate gene expression in peripheral blood cells of sheep under ACTH challenge

ABSTRACT: The aim of the research was to investigate the regulation of gene expression in ovine blood leukocytes during ACTH challenge and the effect of effects of dietary administration of botanicals to modulate the stress related response. Six homogeneous groups of Sarda sheep were used, one negative control (CT) and five injected with ACTH to mimic biological stress. Afterwards four of the five ACTH treated groups were separately and fed with extract from Echinacea angustifolia roots (PO), with extract from Echinacea angustifolia flowers (EA), with extracts from Andrographis paniculata (AP) and with Larix decidua sawdust (LB). Control groups (CT and ACTH) were fed with a basal diet. RNA was extracted from blood samples collected before (T0) and after 3 (T3) and 51 (T51) hours from the first ACTH injection and transcriptome analysis was performed using a custom oligoarray. The injection of ACTH caused a down regulation of transcripts (95.5%, 232 over 243; P<0.01) at T3, whilst the administration with the diet of AP, EA, LB and PO determined a predominant up regulation. At T51, the down regulated transcripts of the ACTH group in comparison to CT group were lower (36.2%, 142 over 392; P<0.01), whilst for the animals receiving plant extracts with the diet the percentage of down regulated transcripts increased, in particular for LB group (85.8 %). Biological pathways affected by the injection of the adrenocorticotrophic hormone include the MAPK signaling pathway, the p53 signaling pathway, the TGF-beta signaling pathway and the T-cell receptor signaling pathway. The most promising botanicals for the control of induced stress appeared Echinacea angustifolia and Larix decidua, in particular both showing a target for the NR4A1 gene, a glucocorticoid receptor involved in the cell trafficking after cortisol secretion. The RNA extracted from blood samples and depleted from globinic mRNA was used for the preparation of pools. Samples were pooled together within group (6 groups) and time of sampling (3 times), including in the pool an equal quantity of RNA for each sheep. Eighteen pools were obtained for the hybridizations, that were performed in duplicate (36 slides).

ORGANISM(S): Ovis aries

SUBMITTER: alberto Pallavicini 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-28667 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress