title: Gene expression in rabbit appendices infected with Eimeria coecicola.
abstract: Eimeria coecicola causes intestinal coccidiosis in rabbits and, thereby, enormous economic losses in rabbit farms. Here, we investigate the final target site of E. coecicola, the appendix of rabbits, at the level of gene expression. Rabbits, orally infected with E. coecicola, begin to shed parasitic oocysts with their feces on day 5 p.i., and approximately 1.1 million oocysts are maximally shedded on day 7 p.i. At maximal shedding, the appendix has increased in size by about 2-3-folds and reveals increased hemorrhage which is associated with increases in nitrite/nitrate, malondialdehyde and catalase activity and a decrease in glutathione. Agilent 2-color oligo whole rabbit genome microarray, in combination with quantitative real-time PCR, detects 45 and 36 genes whose expression is more than 2-fold up- and down-regulated, respectively, by E. coecicola infection on day 7 p.i. The most dramatic increase by approximately 50-fold reveals the mRNA of the pro- and anti-inflammatory pleiotropic cytokine interleukin 6 (IL-6), whereas the largest decrease by approximately 13-fold is detected for mRNAs encoding for DBP, SULT3A1, CRP and glutathione-S transferase. Also, there are up- and down-regulations in the expression of genes encoding diverse regions of antibodies. Our data suggest that IL-6 plays a central role in the infection of the appendix of rabbits by E. coecicola, presumably involved in both pathological injuries, host defences and healing processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohamed A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Dkhil
authors.forename: Mostafa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Abdel-Maksoud
authors.forename: Saleh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Al-Quraishy
authors.forename: Abdel-Azeem S
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Abdel-Baki
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wunderlich
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001065:Appendix / Q000469:parasitology*; D001119:Arginase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D040501:Calgranulin A / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D003048:Coccidiosis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D004539:Eimeria / Q000145:classification*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D053804:Granzymes / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011817:Rabbits / Q000469:parasitology*
chemical_list: D040501:Calgranulin A; D015850:Interleukin-6; D053804:Granzymes; D001119:Arginase