Relationship Between Milk Lactoferrin and Etiological Agent in the Mastitic Bovine Mammary Gland

Abstract

Bovine mastitis is one of the most deleterious diseases for dairy herds and is mainly caused by contagious and environmental bacterial pathogens. Among contagious bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus is the most prevalent, whereas the main environmental mastitis pathogens are Streptococcus uberis and Escherichia coli. Bovine lactoferrin (bLF) is an approximately 80-kDa glycoprotein present in milk that participates in the innate response of the mammary gland against bacterial infection. The objectives of the current study were to analyze potential changes in bLF milk concentration, which would constitute a response of the mammary gland toward mastitis induced by different etiologic agents, and to evaluate a possible relation between this response and pathogen susceptibility to bLF. Microbiology analysis and bLF quantification in milk from different bovine mammary gland quarters were performed. Infected quarters presented greater concentrations of bLF compared with those from microbiologically negative quarters. Analysis of individual pathogen contributions showed that most of this increase was attributable to Strep. uberis intra-mammary infection. The ability of mammary gland cells to synthesize bLF in response to Strep. uberis challenge was demonstrated by immunodetection of the protein in in vitro infection experiments. Susceptibility of Strep. uberis, E. coli, and Staph. aureus to the antimicrobial activity of bLF was determined by growth inhibition assays conducted with 4 different isolates of each species. Whereas Staph. aureus and E. coli were shown to be susceptible to this protein, Strep. uberis appeared to be resistant to the antimicrobial activity of bLF. Molecular typing of the 4 Strep. uberis isolates used throughout this study showed that this result was representative of the species and not exclusive of a particular strain. Results presented herein suggest that different bacteria species may elicit different mammary gland responses mediated by bLF secretion and that Strep. uberis has probably adapted to this immune reaction by developing resistance to bLF inhibitory action.

Haemolytic and proteolytic activity of coagulase-negative staphylococci isolated from mastitis cows

“…The essential proteins binding iron in various secretions, including milk, are lactoferrin from phagocytes or milk-secreting cells (Weinberg 1986, Lisiecki and Mikucki 1996, Chaneton et al 2008) and transferrin produced by the liver (Weinberg 1986, Lisiecki andMikucki 1996). Insufficient availability of this element in tissues and body fluids may be the factor limiting the multiplication of staphylococci in the host organism (Weinberg 1986, Krajewska-Pietrasik and Różalska 1995, Zimecki and Artym 2005.…”

Utilização da vacina Escherichia coli J5 na imunização de vacas leiteiras contra mastites causadas por E. coli

“…Esta proteína possui capacidade bacteriostá-tica, principalmente, por tornar os níveis de ferro na glân-dula mamária indisponíveis (Green et al 2002, Kutila et al 2003, Chaneton et al 2008. Estudos realizados por Diarra et al (2002) indicam, ainda, uma potente atividade bactericida da lactoferrina por meio do aumento da permeabilidade da membrana celular bacteriana e lesão da parede celular externa, particularmente, em bactérias Gram-negativo, podendo aumentar o efeito de alguns antimicrobianos.…”

“…A ação da lactoferrina nas secreções mamárias é ainda maior contra bactérias Gram-negativo, em especial, E.coli, como demonstrado por Chaneton et al (2008) que observaram que a inibição do crescimento E.coli depende das concentrações de lactoferrina na glândula mamária. Ainda, Todhunter et al (1990) verificaram que esta inibição pode ser otimizada pela presença de imunoglobulinas, uma vez que a combinação imunoglobulina e lactoferrina resultou em significativas reduções no crescimento de E. coli, comparadas a ação isolada da lactoferrina, indicando que os anticorpos presentes na secreção mamária que interagem com a lactoferrina são mais efetivos contra E. coli.…”

Association of polymorphism within LTF gene promoter with lactoferrin concentration in milk of Holstein cows

“…Bovine LTF concentration in milk from healthy mammary glands is low: 100-400 μg/mL (Kutila et al 2004) and significantly increases during immunological stress (Kawai et al 1999, Hagiwara et al 2003, Chaneton et al 2008. A high positive correlation between somatic cell count (SCC) and LTF content in milk was reported by Hagiwara et al (2003) and Cheng et al (2008a).…”

“…Like many other milk components, fluctuations of LTF in the following stages of lactation are natural and are reflected by dynamic changes in mammary gland, especially in highly productive cows. Since lactoferrin is involved in response to bacterial infection (Chaneton et al 2008), it is more interesting to show the overall effect of LTF polymorphism faced by health status of mammary gland than to trace its changes in the following stages of lactation. As we proved earlier, using the EMSA technique (Zabolewicz et al 2012), a promoter sequence with the A allele was more efficiently bound by the nuclear proteins isolated from healthy mammary tissues than a promoter containing the C allele.…”