Organization and biology of the porcine serum amyloid A (SAA) gene cluster: isoform specific responses to bacterial infection

PLoS One. 2013 Oct 11;8(10):e76695. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0076695. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Serum amyloid A (SAA) is a prominent acute phase protein. Although its biological functions are debated, the wide species distribution of highly homologous SAA proteins and their uniform behavior in response to injury or inflammation in itself suggests a significant role for this protein. The pig is increasingly being used as a model for the study of inflammatory reactions, yet only little is known about how specific SAA genes are regulated in the pig during acute phase responses and other responses induced by pro-inflammatory host mediators. We designed SAA gene specific primers and quantified the gene expression of porcine SAA1, SAA2, SAA3, and SAA4 by reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in liver, spleen, and lung tissue from pigs experimentally infected with the Gram-negative swine specific bacterium Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, as well as from pigs experimentally infected with the Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. Our results show that: 1) SAA1 may be a pseudogene in pigs; 2) we were able to detect two previously uncharacterized SAA transcripts, namely SAA2 and SAA4, of which the SAA2 transcript is primarily induced in the liver during acute infection and presumably contributes to circulating SAA in pigs; 3) Porcine SAA3 transcription is induced both hepatically and extrahepatically during acute infection, and may be correlated to local organ affection; 4) Hepatic transcription of SAA4 is markedly induced in pigs infected with A. pleuropneumoniae, but only weakly in pigs infected with S. aureus. These results for the first time establish the infection response patterns of the four porcine SAA genes which will be of importance for the use of the pig as a model for human inflammatory responses, e.g. within sepsis, cancer, and obesity research.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Actinobacillus / physiology
  • Animals
  • Bacterial Infections / blood
  • Bacterial Infections / genetics*
  • Bacterial Infections / pathology
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Humans
  • Multigene Family*
  • Organ Specificity / genetics
  • Protein Isoforms / genetics
  • Protein Isoforms / metabolism
  • Serum Amyloid A Protein / genetics*
  • Serum Amyloid A Protein / metabolism
  • Staphylococcus aureus / physiology
  • Sus scrofa / genetics*
  • Sus scrofa / microbiology*

Substances

  • Protein Isoforms
  • Serum Amyloid A Protein

Grants and funding

This work was financed by grant no. 271-07-0417 from the Danish Medical Research Council. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.