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Aberrant Gene Expression of Selenoproteins in Chicken Spleen Lymphocytes Induced by Mercuric Chloride

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Abstract

Mercury (Hg) is a heavy metal widely distributed in ecological environment, poisoning the immune system of humans and animals. Selenium (Se) is an essential microelement and selenoproteins involved in the procedure of Se antagonizing organ toxicity induced by heavy metals. The aim of this research was to investigate the changes of gene expression profile of selenoproteins induced by mercuric chloride (HgCl2) in chicken spleen lymphocytes. We established cytotoxicity model of chicken spleen lymphocytes by HgCl2 exposure, the messenger RNA (mRNA) expression levels of 25 selenoproteins in spleen lymphocytes were analyzed by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR), and the gene expression pattern of selenoproteins was revealed by principal component analysis (PCA). The results showed that the mRNA expression levels of 13 selenoproteins (GPX3, GPX4, TXNRD2, TXNRD3, DIO2, SELENOS, SELENON, SELENOT, SELENOO, SELENOP, SELENOP2, MSRB1, and SEPHS2) were decreased in HgCl2 treatment group, and there was strong positive correlation between these selenoproteins and component 1 as well as component 2 of the PCA. At the same time, the protein expression levels of GPX4, TXNRD1, TXNRD2, SELENOM, SELENOS, and SELENON were detected by Western blotting, which were consistent with the changes of gene expression. The results showed that the expression levels of selenoproteins were aberrant in response to HgCl2 toxicity. The information presented in this study provided clues for further research on the interaction between HgCl2 and selenoproteins, and the possible mechanism of immune organ toxicity induced by HgCl2.

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Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 31902330) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (grant number 2020M672098).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai’an City, 271018, Shandong Province, China

    Jia-Hong Chu, Yu-Xue Yan, Xue-Wei Chen, Pei-Chao Gao, Lan-Xin Li & Rui-Feng Fan

  2. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai’an City, 271018, Shandong Province, China

    Jia-Hong Chu, Yu-Xue Yan, Xue-Wei Chen, Pei-Chao Gao, Lan-Xin Li & Rui-Feng Fan

  3. Shandong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Shandong Agricultural University, 61 Daizong Street, Tai’an City, 271018, Shandong Province, China

    Jia-Hong Chu, Yu-Xue Yan, Xue-Wei Chen, Pei-Chao Gao, Lan-Xin Li & Rui-Feng Fan

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Rui-Feng Fan suggested the idea and made the study design. Jia-Hong Chu and Yu-Xue Yan carried out the experiment. Jia-Hong Chu wrote the manuscript with support of Rui-Feng Fan. Pei-Chao Gao, Xue-Wei Chen, and Lan-Xin Li who analyzed the results. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Chu, JH., Yan, YX., Chen, XW. et al. Aberrant Gene Expression of Selenoproteins in Chicken Spleen Lymphocytes Induced by Mercuric Chloride. Biol Trace Elem Res 200, 2857–2865 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-021-02870-4

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