Article

Transcription of T cell-related genes in teleost fish, and the European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) as a model.

Department of Environmental Sciences, Università della Tuscia, Largo dell'Università Snc, 01100 Viterbo, Italy.
Fish &amp Shellfish Immunology (impact factor: 3.32). 10/2010; 31(5):655-62. DOI:10.1016/j.fsi.2010.10.001 pp.655-62
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT In recent years the cloning of genes coding for immuno-regulatory peptides, as well as the sequencing of genomes, provided fish immunologists with a growing amount of information on nucleotide sequences. Research is now also addressed in investigating the functional immunology counterpart of nucleotide sequence transcripts in various fish species. In this respect, studies on functional immunology of T cell activities are still at their beginning, and much work is needed to investigate T cell responses in teleost fish species. In this review we summarise the current knowledge on the group of genes coding for main T cell-related peptides in fish, and the expression levels of these genes in organs and tissues. Particular attention is paid to European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), a marine species in which some information on functional immunology has been obtained, and we reassume here the expression of some T cell-related genes in basal conditions. In addition, we provide original data showing that T cells purified from the intestinal mucosa of sea bass with a specific mAb, express transcripts for TRβ, TRγ, CD8α, and RAG-1, thus showing similarities with intra-epithelial leucocytes of mammals.

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Keywords

European sea bass
 
expression levels
 
fish immunologists
 
functional immunology
 
functional immunology counterpart
 
genes coding
 
immuno-regulatory peptides
 
intra-epithelial leucocytes
 
main T cell-related peptides
 
nucleotide sequence transcripts
 
nucleotide sequences
 
original data
 
Particular attention
 
recent years
 
T cell activities
 
T cell responses
 
T cell-related genes
 
T cells purified
 
teleost fish species
 
various fish species