title: Comparison between intestinal and non-mucosal immune functions of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss.
abstract: Since mucosal surfaces represent major portals of entry for pathogens, its associated immune system is important to protect the organism. In this paper, we compared at the cellular and molecular levels intestinal leukocyte suspensions with their head kidney (HK) or peripheral blood (PBL) counterparts to highlight characteristics of intestinal immune functions in healthy rainbow trout. These studies show that intestinal phagocytes are less activated by yeast cells but when they are activated they can ingest as many yeast cells as their HK counterparts. A natural cytotoxic activity could be detected which is twice higher in intestinal than in HK leukocyte preparations. This natural cytotoxic activity is correlated with the expression of transcripts encoding the natural killer enhancement factor (NKEF). Intestinal leukocytes did not respond to an in vitro mitogenic stimulation performed under classical culture conditions. And finally, a high expression of CD8α transcripts was observed in gut leukocyte preparations, suggesting that the intestine could contain a high proportion of T cells expressing the αα homodimeric form of CD8. This kind of comparison on nonimmunized fish provides better knowledge on basal immune functions in the intestine to, analyze later on, immune responses induced by an antigenic stimulation.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Animal Nutrition and Health, DSM Nutritional Products France, 1 Bd d'Alsace, P.O. Box 170, 68305 Saint Louis Cedex, France. eve.martin@dsm.com
authors.forename: Eve
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Viviane
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Verlhac Trichet
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Legrand-Frossi
authors.forename: Jean-Pol
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Frippiat
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019540:Area Under Curve; D016827:CD8 Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D002499:Centrifugation, Density Gradient / Q000662:veterinary; D003601:Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic / Q000662:veterinary; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D060226:Head Kidney / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000276:immunology*; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D017686:Oncorhynchus mykiss / Q000276:immunology*; D010586:Phagocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D015003:Yeasts
chemical_list: D016827:CD8 Antigens; C431698:CD8alpha antigen; D017931:DNA Primers