Role of infection in reproduction : bovine endometrial cell model

The higher and higher pressure for genetics selection of bovine phenotypes for milk or meet production is resulting in lower and lower efficiency reproduction and fertility rate.
One of the reasons for this phenomenon could be linked to the higher susceptibility of bovine uterine epithelium to bacterial infections. In particular the modification of the phenotype and physiology of uterine epithelial cells could play a key role in the very early stages of pregnancy failure.
Interaction of host-pathogen could result in changes in gene expression, protein expression and epigenetic regulation. Indeed, all these the aspects contribute to the final phenotype of cells in close contact with pathogens.
In vitro bovine uterine epithelial cell were challenged with different concentration of LPS in order to study the physiologic and phenotypic changes related to host-pathogen interaction. Differential protein expression was evaluated through 2DE/Maldi TOF and shotgun MS approach.
Results highlighted the differential expression of 31 differentially expressed proteins. Among them, Interferon-induced GTP-binding protein Mx1 and Superoxide dismutase were over-expressed in challenged cells. Interferon-induced GTP-binding protein Mx1 has a proven antiviral activity and is involved in cellular response against pathogens. Superoxide dismutase plays an important role against oxidative stress and its expression could be linked to the bacterial infection-dependent gene activation for oxidative stress response.
Histone H2B was found to be down-regulated in relation to LPS administration. Its down-regulation among the different experimental groups demonstrates that challenged cells are somehow rearranging chromatin structure that itself modulates gene and protein expression.
This represents a keystone in the comprehension of host-pathogen adaptive mechanisms that involve changes in Histone code and chromatin structure.