title: Exploratory assessment of CD4+ T lymphocytes in brown hares (Lepus europeus) using a cross-reactive anti-rabbit CD4 antibody.
abstract: In lagomorphs, lymphocyte subset distributions and the importance of CD4(+) T cell levels has so far only been considered in the frame of rabbit disease models. In this study, the first assessment of CD4(+) T lymphocytes in peripheral blood cells in brown hares (Lepus europaeus L., 1758), a further leporid species using a cross-reactive rabbit anti-CD4 antibody in flow cytometry, is presented. In addition, the entire coding region of the hare CD4 gene (1380 bp) coding for a polypeptide of 459 amino acids has been sequenced. Using generalized least squares fitting by maximum likelihood (GLS) test, significantly (p=0.0095) higher CD4(+) T cell frequencies in males than in females and significantly (p=0.0001) higher frequencies for leverets (younger than 2 months of age) than for subadult and adult (older than 7 months of age) individuals were detected. No significant age influence, however, was found for subadult and adult hares. The study is particularly meant to provide a first step in establishing a toolbox for the assessment of the immune response in this leporid species.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Immunology, Department of Pathobiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Barbara C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Rütgen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Immunology, Department of Pathobiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Wilhelm
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gerner
authors.affiliation: Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Beiglböck
authors.affiliation: Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schaschl
authors.affiliation: Institute of Immunology, Department of Pathobiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saalmüller
authors.affiliation: Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Suchentrunk
authors.affiliation: Institute of Immunology, Department of Pathobiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: sabine.essler@vetmeduni.ac.at.
authors.forename: Sabine E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Essler
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000906:Antibodies; D015704:CD4 Antigens / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology* / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D034621:Hares / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011817:Rabbits; D013045:Species Specificity; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D015704:CD4 Antigens
keywords: Brown hare; CD4; Cross-reactivity; Flow cytometry; Lepus europaeus; T lymphocytes