Project description:The liver of dairy cows naturally displays a series of metabolic adaptation during the periparturient period in response to the increasing nutrient requirement of lactation. The hepatic adaptation is partly regulated by insulin resistance and it is affected by the prepartal energy intake level of cows. We aimed to investigate the metabolic changes in the liver of dairy cows during the periparturient at gene expression level and to study the effect of prepartal energy level on the metabolic adaptation at gene expression level.B13:N13
Project description:Cattle with subclinical endometritis (SCE) are sub-fertile, but there is no predictive or diagnosis tool for subclinical uterine disease. The hypothesis for this study was that endometrial inflammation is reflected in peripheral blood leucocytes gene expression. Transcriptome patterns in healthy cows and in cows with SCE at 45-55 days postpartum were evaluated using circulating white blood cells and endometrial biopsies samples collected from the same animals. Bioinformatics analyses of microarray-based transcriptional data identified gene profiles associated with distinct biological functions in circulating white blood cells and endometrium. In circulating white blood cells SCE promote a pro-inflammatory environment related to the activation of inflammation, whereas in the endometrium functions also related to tissue remodeling. Nineteen differentially expressed genes were altered both in circulating white blood cells and in the endometrium of SCE cows compared with healthy cows. Among these genes, transcript abundance of immune factors C3, C2, LTF, PF4 and TRAPPC13 were up-regulated in SCE cows at 45-55 days postpartum. Moreover, the mRNA expression of C3, CXCL8, LTF, TLR2 and TRAPPC13 was temporally regulated during the postpartum period in circulating white blood cells from healthy cows compared with SCE cows. This observation might indicate an advantageous activation of the immune system in healthy animals. The transcript abundance of these genes might also be used as an indicator for subsequent postpartum uterine health.
Project description:Negative energy balance and hepatic gene expression patterns in high yielding dairy cows during the early postpartum period [liver]
Project description:Negative energy balance and splenic gene expression patterns in high yielding dairy cows during the early postpartum period [spleen]
Project description:Amplicon sequencing (16S rRNA and ITS2) of bacterial and fungal communities from the uterine microbiome of Angus cows during postpartum period, with and without grape pomace supplementation.
Project description:Background: Physiological inflammation of the uterus postpartum is essential for the reparative processes of involution after calving. In the majority of cows, this inflammation is resolved and homeostasis is restored. However, in a significant subset, inflammation persists and contributes to tissue damage, pathology and subfertility. Transcriptomic differences of immune genes between cattle that resolve inflammation and those that develop uterine disease have been detected as early as 7 days postpartum (DPP) suggesting that the host immune response plays an important role in disease outcome. Results: Here, we extensively characterise the immune response at the transcriptomic level in endometrial epithelial cells from post-partum dairy cows phenotyped for both clinical and sub-clinical forms of uterine disease. We address the hypothesis that excessive expression of endometrial inflammatory molecules contributes to development of endometritis. Classification of cattle (n=112) as healthy or with uterine disease (purulent vaginal discharge; PVD and cytological endometritis; CYTO) was based on vaginal mucus score and >18% polymorphonuclear cell infiltrate into the endometrium at 21 DPP. RNA-seq analysis of endometrial epithelial cells collected using cytobrushes identified differential expression of 294 genes (FDR <0.05) between cows that subsequently resolved inflammation (n=10) and those that developed disease (n=20). Pathway over-representation analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEG) identified significant changes in immune-related pathways, including the NOD-like receptor signalling pathway, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction pathway and the Toll-like receptor signalling pathway which were up-regulated in cattle that subsequently developed disease. The majority of the DEG were upregulated in cows that developed PVD, and included all genes upregulated in CYTO cows, suggesting a core inflammatory gene signature early post-partum contributes to the onset of uterine disease. This inflammatory signature was validated by qPCR in an independent group of cows (n=56) and included upregulation of pro-inflammatory genes (including TLR2, TLR4, NLRP3, IL1A, IL1B, IL8, and S100A8) at day 7 postpartum in cows that failed to resolve inflammation. Conclusions: Despite a large amount of inter-animal heterogeneity, these results suggest that excessive activation and inappropriate regulation of the inflammatory response early postpartum is a key feature of the subsequent development of uterine disease. Keywords: Endometritis, Inflammation, Transcriptome, Next generation sequencing, Dairy cattle, Uterine involution, Immune response