Keywords :
5' Flanking Region/genetics; Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides/metabolism; Base Sequence; Binding Sites; Cloning, Molecular; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation/drug effects; Humans; Interleukins/chemistry/genetics/metabolism/pharmacology; Introns/genetics; Molecular Sequence Data; Oncorhynchus mykiss/genetics/microbiology; Phylogeny; Protein Binding/drug effects; Recombinant Proteins/isolation & purification/pharmacology; Sequence Alignment; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Spleen/drug effects/metabolism; Transcription Factors/metabolism; Yersinia ruckeri/drug effects/physiology
Abstract :
[en] This report describes the cloning and characterisation of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) interleukin (IL)-22, and presents studies of the functional activity of its recombinant protein for the first time in a non-mammalian species. The predicted IL-22 coding region consists of 522 nucleotides which translates into a 173 amino acid protein, that contains an IL-10 family signature which is reasonably well conserved with other vertebrate IL-22 molecules. Expression analysis in tissues from healthy fish revealed a higher constitutive expression of IL-22 in mucosal tissues, suggesting a potentially important role in mucosal immunity. In vitro studies demonstrated that IL-22 expression was induced significantly by PHA and PMA in splenocyte primary cultures 4h post-stimulation. Expression was also induced in the spleen upon infection of fish with the Gram-negative bacterium Yersinia ruckeri, suggesting a potential role of IL-22 in vivo in defence against bacterial diseases. The Escherichia coli produced recombinant IL-22 enhanced the expression of a number of antimicrobial peptides, promoting host innate immunity against microbes and revealing a biological similarity with its mammalian counterpart.
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