Distinct expression profile and histological distribution of NLRP3 inflammasome components in the tissues of Hainan black goat suggest a site-specific role in the inflammatory response

Abstract

The NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome comprised of NLRP3, ASC and caspase-1 plays an important role in the inflammatory and innate immune response. However, little is known about the expression pattern and histological distribution of these genes in goat. Here, we first cloned the fulllength cDNAs of the NLRP3, ASC and caspase-1 genes of Hainan black goat and produced their polyclonal antibodies. Tissue-specific expression and histological distribution of these genes were analysed. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that these three goat genes had high homology with Bos taurus genes and low homology with avian or fish genes. After immunisations with these recombinant Histagged proteins, the titres of antiserum were higher than 1:1024 and purified IgG was obtained. These three genes were expressed in all examined tissues, the mRNA expression level of NLRP3 and caspase-1 was most abundant in the spleen and mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs), while ASC was primary expressed in the liver, spleen and kidney. The histological distribution of NLRP3, ASC and caspase-1 was detected in myocardial cells, hepatocytes, focal lymphocytes, bronchiolar epithelial cells, renal tubular epithelial cells, cortical neurons and endothelial cells of the germinal centres in the MLNs. These results will be helpful in further investigations into the function of the NLRP3 inflammasome and in elucidating its role in caprine inflammatory diseases.

Inflammasomes in livestock and wildlife: Insights into the intersection of pathogens and natural host species

“…Currently, data on inflammasomes in sheep and goats is limited to NLRP3 expression data. NLRP3 mRNA expression in goat tissues was recently profiled by Zhang et al (2017). In Merino sheep, vaccination with the TLR ligand poly(I:C) plus diphtheria toxoid induced upregulation of NLRP3 inflammasome pathway genes in cells in afferent lymph vessels (Burke et al, 2014), which likely simply reflected a signal 1 upregulation event.…”

iTRAQ-based proteomic analysis of the reproductive cycle characteristics of Hainan Black Goat, the unique species in China, Hainan Province

“…The meat-type goat breed has the excellent characteristics of heat resistance (Wang et al, 2014a), in recent years, with the increase in farm size and the number of goats bred, the low farrowing rate and milkability have exerted increasing influence on the scale of Hainan black goat. There were a few reports on the genetic diversity (Zhou et al, 2012), inflammasome components (Zhang et al, 2017) and nutrition regulation methods (Wang et al, 2014b;Wang et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2015b) of Hainan black goat, however, so far, there still no report on the reproductive law of this specific goat species, the study was the first research on the reproduction characteristics of Hainan black goat, we aimed to improve the fertility of this species through uncovering the internal rule of the changing of serum proteins during the whole reproductive cycle.…”