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:In animal production, the use of probiotics supplements to promote animal health is increasing. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of probiotics administration on global gene expression in dairy cows. Lactating Holstein-Friesian cows (n=10) from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University dairy herd were used for the study. Treatment was a 50 ml oral drench of FASTtrak microbial pack (Probiotics) (Conklin Company, Kansas City, MO) at the recommended dose in sterile endotoxin-free water or sterile endotoxin-free water only (control). This treatment was carried out for 60 days. Whole blood was collected at the beginning (Day 0) and end of the study (Day 60) for microarray analysis. We employed microarray expression profiling as a discovery platform to identify genes with potential association with probiotics supplementation in cows. Gene expression analysis identified 10,859 differentially expressed genes- 1168 upregulated genes and 9691 downregulated gene. Results for pathway analysis showed significant pathways associated with innate immunity such as the Toll-like receptor (TLR) pathway, inflammation response and Wingless (Wnt) signaling pathway. Real-time PCR was used to validate the expression of the Wnt signaling pathway and immune response genes. Probiotic treatment impacted global gene expression, and particularly, the expression of immune response and Wnt signaling pathway genes. Oral administration of probiotics to dairy cows impacts global gene expression and particularly the expression of innate immune genes in dairy cows.
Project description:In animal production the use of probiotics supplements to promote animal health is increasing. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of probiotics administration on global gene expression in dairy cows. Lactating Holstein Friesian cows (n=10) from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University dairy herd were used for the study. Treatment was a 10 ml oral drench of FASTtrak microbial pack (Probiotics) (Conklin Company, Kansas City, MO) at the recommended dose in water or water only (control). This treatment was carried out for 60 days. Whole blood was collected at the beginning (Day 0) and end of the study (Day 60) for microarray analysis. We employed microarray expression profiling as a discovery platform to identify genes with potential association with probiotics supplementation in cows. Gene expression analysis identified 10,859 differentially expressed genes- 1168 upregulated genes and 9691 downregulated gene. Results for pathway analysis showed significant pathways associated with innate immunity such as the Toll-like receptor (TLR) pathway, inflammation response and Wingless (Wnt) signaling pathway. Real-time PCR was used to validate gene expression of members of the TLR and Wnt signaling pathway. Treatment affected the expression of innate and adaptive immune response, cytokine and Wnt pathway genes. Daily administration of probiotics to dairy cows impacts global gene expression and particularly the expression of innate immune genes in dairy cows. Ten animals were enrolled in the study and an initial blood sample was collected (Day 0). Animals (n=5) received either daily supplementations with FASTtrak microbial pack (Probiotics) (Conklin Company, Kansas City, MO) or water daily (control animals) for 60 days. Blood samples were collected at the end of the study from probiotics-treated and control animals for RNA extraction and microarray analysis. In vitro effect of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) endotoxin treatment was evaluated using blood samples collected from probiotics-treated animals (Day 60 samples) to serve as positive control array. A pooled sample was generated by taking equal concentration of RNA from experimental animals in each group. Pooled samples from each group was hybridized on Agilent one color bovine v2 bovine (v2) 4x44KÂ array slides.
Project description:Liver plays a profound role in the acute phase response (APR) observed in the early phase of acute bovine mastitis caused by Escherichia coli (E. coli). To gain an insight into the genes and pathways involved in hepatic APR of dairy cows we performed a global gene expression analysis of liver tissue sampled at different time points before and after intra-mammary (IM) exposure to E. coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment. Experiment Overall Design: Eight healthy, high yielding Holstein-Friesian dairy cows in their first lactation (9 to 12 weeks after calving) were chosen for this study. At time 0 the right front quarter was infused with 200 μg E. coli LPS dissolved in 10 ml 0.9% NaCl solution, the left front quarter serving as control was infused with 10 ml 0.9% NaCl solution. Liver biopsies were taken at â22, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 48 hours relative to LPS infusion in 4 cows, and also at â22, 9 and 48 hours in the remaining 4 cows. RNA from liver biopsies was isolated and biotin labeled cRNA was loaded onto the Affymetric GeneChip Bovine Genome Array. A control study using cows infused with 0.9% NaCl showed that there was no effect of taking the biopsy, neither in the clinical measurement nor in the expression of a selected subset of genes. Therefore, only samples taken from the LPS treated cows were measured for the gene expression using microarrays.
Project description:The experiment is part of a study aimed at identifying and studying genes that contribute to differences in oestrous behaviour expression and fertility levels of dairy cows. Samples from 4 brain areas (dorsal hypothalamus, ventral hypothalamus, amygdala and hippocampus) and the anterior pituitary were collected from 28 primiparous Holstein Friesian cows, 14 of which were sacrificed at start of oestrus and 14 at mid of oestrous cycle. Differential gene expression between the 2 phases of oestrous cycle as well as the association of gene expression patterns with the level of oestrous behaviour expression are studied.