Expression Pattern of Cathelicidins in Dairy Cows During Endometritis and Role of Bovine Endometrial Epithelial Cells in Production of Cathelicidins

作者：Yajuan Li, Xiaoyu Ma, Jie Yang, Xiaohu Wu, Zuoting Yan, Baoxiang He · 发表于：Frontiers in Veterinary Science · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.3389/fvets.2021.675669 · 被引用次数：14 · 研究领域：Reproductive Physiology in Livestock、Reproductive System and Pregnancy、Antimicrobial Peptides and Activities

Endometritis is a common bacterial disease of dairy cows. Cathelicidins are host-defense peptides that play important roles in clearance of bacteria. However, the expression pattern of these peptides during endometritis is still unclear. We hypothesize that the levels of bovine cathelicidins increased during endometritis. This study was to investigate the changes of bovine cathelicidins during endometritis. Forty-four post-partum cows (28–35 days after calving) involved in this study were grouped according to the character of vaginal discharge (VD) into three groups. These were (1) cows with clear fluid ( n = 8, healthy cows group, N); (2) cows with VD containing <50% off-white mucopurulent material ( n = 20, moderate endometritis cows, M); (3) cows with VD containing > 50% yellow or white purulent material ( n = 16, severe endometritis cows, S). The blood, VD, and endometrial biopsies samples were collected from each cow to assess the levels of cathelicidin 1–7. Furthermore, bovine endometrial epithelial cells (BEECs) were stimulated with different concentration of Escherichia coli (2 × 10 6 and 2 × 10 7 CFU/mL) to detect the cellular source of cathelicidins. Quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) was used to detect the relative mRNA expression of cathelicidins, and enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) method were used to measure the protein levels. The mRNA and protein levels of cathelicidin 1–7 significantly increased during bovine endometritis (both mode...