title: Analysis of gene expression in white blood cells of cattle orally challenged with bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy.
abstract: Bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy (BASE) is one of the recently discovered atypical forms of BSE, which is transmissible to primates, and may be the bovine equivalent of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) in humans. Although it is transmissible, it is unknown whether BASE is acquired through infection or arises spontaneously. In the present study, the gene expression of white blood cells (WBCs) from 5 cattle at 1 yr after oral BASE challenge was compared with negative controls using a custom microarray containing 43,768 unique gene probes. In total, 56 genes were found to be differentially expressed between BASE and control animals with a log fold change of 2 or greater. Of these, 39 were upregulated in BASE animals, while 17 were downregulated. The majority of these genes are related to immune function. In particular, BASE animals appeared to have significantly modified expression of genes linked to T- and B-cell development and activation, and to inflammatory responses. The potential impacts of these gene expression changes are described.
authors.affiliation: IDRA-LAB, Parco Tecnologico Padano, via Einstein, Lodi, Italy.
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Panelli
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Strozzi
authors.forename: Rossana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Capoferri
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Barbieri
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Martinelli
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Capucci
authors.forename: Guerino
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lombardi
authors.forename: John L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D002417:Cattle; D015536:Down-Regulation / Q000235:genetics; D016643:Encephalopathy, Bovine Spongiform / Q000235:genetics / Q000635:transmission*; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000662:veterinary*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000235:genetics; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000378:metabolism*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000235:genetics; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000662:veterinary; D051116:Receptors, Scavenger / Q000235:genetics; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D051116:Receptors, Scavenger