title: An Immediate Innate Immune Response Occurred In the Early Stage of E. granulosus Eggs Infection in Sheep: Evidence from Microarray Analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cystic Echinococcosis(CE), caused by infection with the larval stage of the cestode Echinococcus granulosus (E. granulosus), is a chronic parasitic zoonosis, with highly susceptible infection in sheep. However, the comprehensive molecular mechanisms that underlie the process of E. granulosus infection in the early stage remain largely unknown. The objective of this present study was to gain a cluster of genes expression profiles in the intestine tissue of sheep infected with CE.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nine healthy sheep were divided into infection group and healthy controls, with six infected perorally 5000 E. granulosus eggs suspended in 1000 μl physiological saline and three controls perorally injected 1000 μl physiological saline. All animals were sacrificed at 4 hours post-infection, respectively. The intestine tissue was removed and the RNA was extracted. In the infection group, the biology replicates were designed to make sure the accuracy of the data. The ovine microarrays were used to analyze changes of gene expression in the intestine tissue between CE infected sheep and healthy controls. Real-time PCR was used to assess reliability of the microarray data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  By biology repeats, a total of 195 differentially expressed genes were identified between infected group and controls at 4 hours post-infection, with 105 genes related to immune responses, while 90 genes associated with functions including energy metabolism, fat soluble transport, etc. Among the 105 immunity genes, 72 genes showed up-regulated expression levels while 33 showed down-regulation levels. Function analysis showed that most of up-regulated genes were related to innate immune responses, such as mast cell, NK cell, cytokines, chemokines and complement. In addition, Real-time PCR analysis of a random selection of nine genes confirmed the reliability of the microarray data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To our knowledge, this is the first report describing gene expression profiles in the intestine tissue of CE infection sheep. These results suggested that the innate immune system was activated to elicit immediate defense in the intestine tissue where E. granulosus invaded in at 4 hour-post infection. Furthermore, future interest will also focus on unraveling similar events, especially for the function of adaptive immunity, but at late stage infection.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Anhui Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Road Nongkenan, Hefei, 230031, Anhui, People's Republic of China; College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Road Beisi, Shihezi 832003, Xinjiang, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wenqiao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hui
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Road Beisi, Shihezi 832003, Xinjiang, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Anhui Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Road Nongkenan, Hefei, 230031, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jishun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Anhui Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Road Nongkenan, Hefei, 230031, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hongyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Anhui Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Road Nongkenan, Hefei, 230031, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Road Beisi, Shihezi 832003, Xinjiang, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Center for Stem Cell and Translational Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Anhui University, Road Jiulong, Hefei, 230000, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ban
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004443:Echinococcosis / Q000276:immunology*; D048209:Echinococcus granulosus; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D007422:Intestines / Q000276:immunology* / Q000469:parasitology*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010063:Ovum; D018075:RNA, Complementary / Q000378:metabolism; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D034561:Sheep, Domestic / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000469:parasitology; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D018075:RNA, Complementary