Differential expression of inflammatory and immune response genes in sheep infected with Anaplasma phagocytophilum.
Anaplasma phagocytophilum infects a wide variety of host species and causes the diseases tick-borne fever (TBF) in ruminants and granulocytic anaplasmosis in humans, horses and dogs. TBF in sheep has become one of the more prevalent tick-borne diseases in some regions of Europe. A. phagocytophilum infection modifies host gene expression and immune response. The objective of this research was to characterize differential gene expression in sheep experimentally and naturally infected with A. phagocytophilum by microarray hybridization and real-time RT-PCR. The results of these studies demonstrated in sheep the activation of inflammatory and innate immune pathways and the impairment of adaptive immunity during A. phagocytophilum infection. The characterization of the genes and their expression profiles in sheep in response to A. phagocytophilum infection advances our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of pathogen infection and the pathogenesis of TBF. Collectively, these results expand current information on the mammalian host response to A. phagocytophilum infection.
Galindo
Ruth C
RC
Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo s/n, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain.
Ayoubi
Patricia
P
García-Pérez
Ana L
AL
Naranjo
Victoria
V
Kocan
Katherine M
KM
Gortazar
Christian
C
de la Fuente
José
J
D041081:Anaplasma phagocytophilum; D000818:Animals; D016873:Ehrlichiosis / Q000662:veterinary*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000276:immunology; D005802:Genes, MHC Class II / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D007249:Inflammation / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012756:Sheep; D012757:Sheep Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology