title: Lymphocytic, cytokine and transcriptomic profiles in peripheral blood of dogs with atopic dermatitis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Canine atopic dermatitis (cAD) is a common chronic and pruritic skin disease in dogs. The development of cAD involves complex interactions between environmental antigens, genetic predisposition and a number of disparate cell types. The aim of the present study was to perform comprehensive analyses of peripheral blood of AD dogs in relation to healthy subjects in order to determine the changes which would be characteristic for cAD.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The number of cells in specific subpopulations of lymphocytes was analyzed by flow cytometry, concentration of chosen pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4, IL-10, IL-13, TNF-α, TGF-β1) was determined by ELISA; and microarray analysis was performed on RNA samples isolated from peripheral blood nuclear cells of AD and healthy dogs. The number of Th cells (CD3(+)CD4(+)) in AD and healthy dogs was similar, whereas the percentage of Tc (CD3(+)CD8(+)) and Treg (CD4(+)CD25(+) Foxp3(+)) cells increased significantly in AD dogs. Increased concentrations of IL-13 and TNF-α, and decreased levels of IL-10 and TGF-β1 was observed in AD dogs. The level of IL-4 was similar in both groups of animals. Results of the microarray experiment revealed differentially expressed genes involved in transcriptional regulation (e.g., transcription factors: SMAD2, RORA) or signal transduction pathways (e.g., VEGF, SHB21, PROC) taking part in T lymphocytes lineages differentiation and cytokines synthesis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results obtained indicate that CD8(+) T cells, beside CD4(+) T lymphocytes, contribute to the development of the allergic response. Increased IL-13 concentration in AD dogs suggests that this cytokine may play more important role than IL-4 in mediating changes induced by allergic inflammation. Furthermore, observed increase in Treg cells in parallel with high concentrations of TNF-α and low levels of IL-10 and TGF-β1 in the peripheral blood of AD dogs point at the functional insufficiency of Treg cells in patients with AD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, Warsaw, Poland. alicja_majewska@sggw.pl.
authors.forename: Alicja
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2116-7785
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Majewska
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Małgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gajewska
authors.affiliation: Department of Small Animal Diseases with Clinic, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Kourou
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dembele
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Engineering, Wroclaw University of Technology, Wrocław, Poland.
authors.forename: Henryk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Maciejewski
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prostek
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Institute, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poznań, Poland.
authors.forename: Michał
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jank
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics; D003876:Dermatitis, Atopic / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000662:veterinary*; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004285:Dogs; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000662:veterinary; D018655:Lymphocyte Count / Q000662:veterinary; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology; D040081:Protein Array Analysis / Q000662:veterinary; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines
keywords: Canine atopic dermatitis; Cytokines; Lymphocytes; Microarray; Peripheral blood