Analysis of Immune-Relevant Genes Expressed in Spleen of Capra hircus Kids Fed with Trivalent Chromium

Abstract

Chromium is a biologically important element for humans and laboratory animals. Although the favorable effects of trivalent chromiumon immune responses of studied animals have been well documented, the precise mechanisms by which the chromium acts on immune system is relatively poor studied. In this study, real-time qPCR technique was employed to evaluate the expression profiles of four immune-related genes (B2M, MHCA, MHCB, and Rap2A) in spleens of the domestic goats, Capra hircus, feeding on four different levels of supplemental chromium (0, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 mg/day) as chromium– methionine. The results showed that 1.5 mg/day of supplemental chromium significantly increased the expression of the four studied genes (P <0.01). Since the studied genes play important roles in development, activation, and migration of lymphocytes, their increased expression seems to be an unknown mechanism by which chromium impose reinforcing effects on immune system. Therefore, supplemental chromium can be potentially used to improve immune responses especially in animals experiencing any type of stress such as invasion by a pathogen.

Reference Genes Selection for Quantitative Real-Time PCR Using RankAggreg Method in Different Tissues of Capra hircus

“…[ 21 , 22 , 24 , 25 ]. Importantly, chromium has been suggested to alter the expression level of a variety of genes in human and laboratory animals [ 26 - 28 ]. Therefore, we used the trivalent chromium as food supplementation to evaluate the effects of external agents on expression stability of the nine candidate genes.…”