Transcriptomic analysis of reproductive damage in the epididymis of male Kunming mice induced by chronic infection of Toxoplasma gondii PRU strain
PARASITES & VECTORS
Authors: Zheng, Yu-Xiang; Zhang, Xiu-Xiang; Hernandez, Jorge A.; Mahmmod, Yasser S.; Huang, Wan-Yi; Li, Gui-Feng; Wang, Ya-Pei; Zhou, Xue; Li, Xiu-Ming; Yuan, Zi-Guo
Abstract
Background Some researchers have reported that Toxoplasma gondii can cause serious reproductive impairment in male animals. Specifically, T. gondii destroy the quality of sperm in the epididymis, which affects their sexual ability. However, among such studies, none have investigated the male reproductive transcriptome. Therefore, to investigate the relationship between T. gondii and sperm maturation, we infected mice with T. gondii prugniaud (PRU) strain and performed transcriptome sequencing of the epididymis. Results Compared with the control group, 431 upregulated and 229 downregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found (P-value < 0.05, false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05 and |log2 (fold change)| >= 1). According to results of a bioinformatics analysis, Gene Ontology (GO) function is divided into three categories: cellular component, molecular function and biological process. Upon performing GO analysis, we found that some DEGs correlated with an integral part of membrane, protein complex, cell surface, ATP binding, immune system process, signal transduction and metabolic process which are responsible for the epididymal injury. DEGs were mapped to 101 unique KEGG pathways. Pathways such as cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis and apoptosis are closely related to sperm quality. Moreover, Tnfsf10 and spata18 can damage the mitochondria in sperm, which decreases sperm motility and morphology. Conclusions We sequenced the reproductive system of male mice chronically infected with T. gondii, which provides a new direction for research into male sterility caused by Toxoplasma infection. This work provides valuable information and a comprehensive database for future studies of the interaction between T. gondii infection and the male reproductive system.
Differential gene induction by type I and type II Interferons and their combination
JOURNAL OF INTERFERON AND CYTOKINE RESEARCH
Authors: Sanda, Corneliu; Weitzel, Patrick; Tsukahara, Takuma; Schaley, Joel; Edenberg, Howard J.; Stephens, Matthew A.; McClintick, Jeanette N.; Blatt, Lawrence M.; Li, Lang; Brodsky, Leonid; Taylor, Milton W.
Abstract
Type I and type II interferons (IFNs) bind to different cell surface receptors but activate overlapping signal transduction pathways. We examined the effects of a type I IFN (IFN-alpha con1) and a type II IFN (IFN-gamma 1b) on gene expression in A549 cells and demonstrate that there is a common set of genes modulated by both IFNs as well as a set of genes specifically regulated by each, reflecting the activation of different signaling pathways. In particular, IFN-gamma induced many more genes of the signaling pathways, apoptosis, and cytokine interactions than did IFN-alpha. Even with genes induced by both IFNs there were distinctive quantitative differences in expression. IFN-gamma 1b plays a major role in the induction and regulation of the complement pathway. Previous work has shown a synergistic antiviral and antiproliferative effect of type I and type II IFNs in cell culture and in the treatment of tumors in mice. We demonstrate that a majority of genes showed an additive effect of IFN-alpha con1 and IFN-gamma 1b, but a subset of genes is synergistically induced; these include ISG20, MX2, OAS2, and other genes known to be involved in the antiviral response, TRAIL ( TNFSF10) and caspases involved in apoptosis and chemokine genes RANTES, CXCL10, and CXCL11. Greater than additive transcription of some of these genes in the presence of both IFNs was confirmed by real-time kinetic RT-PCR. Elevated induction of many of these genes may be sufficient to explain the synergistic antiviral and antitumor effects of this combination of IFNs in vivo.