Hormonal Differences in Peripheral Blood and Gene Profiling in the Liver and Lymphocytes in Japanese Black Cattle with Growth Retardation

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Japanese Black cattle occasionally demonstrate growth retardation despite sufficient nutrient intake. To clarify hormonal and transcriptional characteristics, we investigated differences in blood components, including hormones, and differences in exhaustive gene expressions in the liver and peripheral lymphocytes of six cattle with growth retardation (GR cattle) and eight control cattle of the same age and pedigree with normal growth. Hematocrit values and concentrations of hemoglobin, serum albumin, total cholesterol, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), thyroxine and insulin in GR cattle were significantly lower than those in controls. GR cattle also excreted higher levels of GH. We used three GR and three control cattle for a microarray analysis in the liver and found that 279 gene expressions were significantly different. However, gene expressions related to the GH-IGF-1 axis, such as the GH receptor and IGF-1, were not significantly different from those of controls. Immune-related gene expressions were significantly lower. To clarify these gene expression levels, peripheral lymphocytes were used for real-time RT-PCR. The expression rates of genes that were significantly lower in the liver, such as chemokine ligand 8, interferon gamma receptor 1 and immunoglobulin light chain VJ region were also significantly lower in three GR cattle than those in the three control cattle. These results suggest that the cause of growth retardation in the present study was due to other factors, not abnormal gene expressions of factors related to the GH-IGF-1 axis in the liver, and that GR cattle were susceptible to infectious disease.

Comparison of Pure and Crossbred Japanese Black Steers in Growth Performance and Metabolic Features from Birth to Slaughter at a Spanish Fattening Farm

“…The high rate of marbling in the Japanese breeds is related to certain blood metabolites [33][34][35][36][37][38]. Plasma TC may be higher in the Wagyu animals, compared with Holstein steers [65], and our TC and TG findings are consistent with this idea.…”

“…Monitoring some of these parameters can help in assessing how efficiently the animals use the supplied nutrients [32]. In Wagyu cattle, the main metabolic parameters related to marbling and growth rates are cholesterol, glucose, and urea [33][34][35][36][37][38].…”

Gene expression profiles in bovine granulocytes reflect the aberration of liver functions

“…How we can identify indicators of slight changes in their conditions? Monitoring of the liver is an effective measure for assessing animal body conditions and the values of various physiologically relevant molecules in the peripheral circulatory system in response to body conditions are usually measured by biochemical and physiological methods (Ishida et al, ; Keogh, Kenny, Cormican, Kelly, & Waters, ; Shi et al, ). Recently we reported that the expression profiles of some genes in PBLs reflect changes in body calcium (Sasaki et al, ).…”

Effects of substituting soybean meal with corn on immune function and gene expression of gut TLR4 pathway of growing goats

“…In this study, GAPDH showed a very stable state. Other researchers also used GAPDH as an internal control in goats ( He et al, 2012 ; Sun et al, 2013 ; Sun et al, 2017 ), cattle ( Ishida et al, 2013 ; Wang et al, 2017 ), yak ( Pan et al, 2015 ; Qin et al, 2015 ), sheep ( Sun et al, 2019 ; Liu et al, 2017 ).…”