PUBLICATION

The inhibitory effect of environmental ammonia on Danio rerio LPS induced acute phase response

Authors
Gonçalves, A.F., Páscoa, I., Neves, J.V., Coimbra, J., Vijayan, M.M., Rodrigues, P., and Wilson, J.M.
ID
ZDB-PUB-110613-7
Date
2012
Source
Developmental and comparative immunology   36(2): 279-88 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • RNA/chemistry
  • RNA/genetics
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/genetics
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/immunology
  • Ammonia/poisoning*
  • Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
  • Zebrafish Proteins/immunology
  • Environmental Exposure/adverse effects*
  • Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides/genetics
  • Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides/immunology
  • Hydrocortisone/analysis
  • Toll-Like Receptor 4/genetics
  • Toll-Like Receptor 4/immunology
  • Hepcidins
  • Interleukin-10/genetics
  • Interleukin-10/immunology
  • Lipopolysaccharides/pharmacology*
  • Immunity, Innate/drug effects
  • Immunity, Innate/immunology
  • Statistics, Nonparametric
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Zebrafish/genetics
  • Zebrafish/immunology*
  • Animals
  • C-Reactive Protein/genetics
  • C-Reactive Protein/immunology
  • Acute-Phase Reaction/immunology*
  • Serum Amyloid A Protein/genetics
  • Serum Amyloid A Protein/immunology
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Interleukin-1beta/genetics
  • Interleukin-1beta/immunology
PubMed
21641930 Full text @ Dev. Comp. Immunol.
Abstract
Ammonia is a toxic by-product of amino acid catabolism and a common environmental pollutant that has been associated with increased disease susceptibility in fish although the mechanism is not well understood. We addressed the hypothesis that elevated environmental ammonia acts by impairing the acute phase response (APR). Specifically, we determined the impact of sub-lethal acute (24h) and chronic (14d) ammonia exposure on acute phase protein gene expression in zebrafish (Danio rerio) in response to a challenge with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS: i.p. 10μg/g after 24h). A panel of LPS-responsive genes (SAA, HAMP, LECT2, Hp and IL1β) were identified and evaluated by real-time quantitative PCR. Ammonia was found to impair induction of SAA, HAMP and LECT2 by 50-90%. Both short (15min, 1h and 24h) and long-term (14days) exposure to high environmental ammonia concentrations significantly elevated whole-body cortisol levels compared with control fish. Our results reveal for the first time that exposure to high environmental levels of ammonia suppresses the innate immune response in fish. We hypothesize that high environmental ammonia-mediated elevation of cortisol levels in zebrafish may be playing a key role in this immunosuppression, while the mechanisms involved remains to be elucidated.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping