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The Teleost Thymus in Health and Disease: New Insights from Transcriptomic and Histopathological Analyses of Turbot, Scophthalmus maximus

The thymus is a primary lymphoid organ that plays a pivotal role in the adaptive immune system. The immunobiology of the thymus in fish is considered to be similar to that of mammals, but it is actually poorly characterized in several cultured teleost species. In particular, while investigations in...

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Autores principales: Ronza, Paolo, Robledo, Diego, Losada, Ana Paula, Bermúdez, Roberto, Pardo, Belén G., Martínez, Paulino, Quiroga, María Isabel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7465915/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32823553
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology9080221
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author Ronza, Paolo
Robledo, Diego
Losada, Ana Paula
Bermúdez, Roberto
Pardo, Belén G.
Martínez, Paulino
Quiroga, María Isabel
author_facet Ronza, Paolo
Robledo, Diego
Losada, Ana Paula
Bermúdez, Roberto
Pardo, Belén G.
Martínez, Paulino
Quiroga, María Isabel
author_sort Ronza, Paolo
collection PubMed
description The thymus is a primary lymphoid organ that plays a pivotal role in the adaptive immune system. The immunobiology of the thymus in fish is considered to be similar to that of mammals, but it is actually poorly characterized in several cultured teleost species. In particular, while investigations in human and veterinary medicine have highlighted that the thymus can be affected by different pathological conditions, little is known about its response during disease in fish. To better understand the role of the thymus under physiological and pathological conditions, we conducted a study in turbot (Scophthalmus maximus), a commercially valuable flatfish species, combining transcriptomic and histopathological analyses. The myxozoan parasite Enteromyxum scophthalmi, which represents a major challenge to turbot production, was used as a model of infection. The thymus tissues of healthy fish showed overrepresented functions related to its immunological role in T-cell development and maturation. Large differences were observed between the transcriptomes of control and severely infected fish. Evidence of inflammatory response, apoptosis modulation, and declined thymic function associated with loss of cellularity was revealed by both genomic and morphopathological analyses. This study presents the first description of the turbot thymus transcriptome and provides novel insights into the role of this organ in teleosts’ immune responses.
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spelling pubmed-74659152020-09-04 The Teleost Thymus in Health and Disease: New Insights from Transcriptomic and Histopathological Analyses of Turbot, Scophthalmus maximus Ronza, Paolo Robledo, Diego Losada, Ana Paula Bermúdez, Roberto Pardo, Belén G. Martínez, Paulino Quiroga, María Isabel Biology (Basel) Article The thymus is a primary lymphoid organ that plays a pivotal role in the adaptive immune system. The immunobiology of the thymus in fish is considered to be similar to that of mammals, but it is actually poorly characterized in several cultured teleost species. In particular, while investigations in human and veterinary medicine have highlighted that the thymus can be affected by different pathological conditions, little is known about its response during disease in fish. To better understand the role of the thymus under physiological and pathological conditions, we conducted a study in turbot (Scophthalmus maximus), a commercially valuable flatfish species, combining transcriptomic and histopathological analyses. The myxozoan parasite Enteromyxum scophthalmi, which represents a major challenge to turbot production, was used as a model of infection. The thymus tissues of healthy fish showed overrepresented functions related to its immunological role in T-cell development and maturation. Large differences were observed between the transcriptomes of control and severely infected fish. Evidence of inflammatory response, apoptosis modulation, and declined thymic function associated with loss of cellularity was revealed by both genomic and morphopathological analyses. This study presents the first description of the turbot thymus transcriptome and provides novel insights into the role of this organ in teleosts’ immune responses. MDPI 2020-08-13 /pmc/articles/PMC7465915/ /pubmed/32823553 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology9080221 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ronza, Paolo
Robledo, Diego
Losada, Ana Paula
Bermúdez, Roberto
Pardo, Belén G.
Martínez, Paulino
Quiroga, María Isabel
The Teleost Thymus in Health and Disease: New Insights from Transcriptomic and Histopathological Analyses of Turbot, Scophthalmus maximus
title The Teleost Thymus in Health and Disease: New Insights from Transcriptomic and Histopathological Analyses of Turbot, Scophthalmus maximus
title_full The Teleost Thymus in Health and Disease: New Insights from Transcriptomic and Histopathological Analyses of Turbot, Scophthalmus maximus
title_fullStr The Teleost Thymus in Health and Disease: New Insights from Transcriptomic and Histopathological Analyses of Turbot, Scophthalmus maximus
title_full_unstemmed The Teleost Thymus in Health and Disease: New Insights from Transcriptomic and Histopathological Analyses of Turbot, Scophthalmus maximus
title_short The Teleost Thymus in Health and Disease: New Insights from Transcriptomic and Histopathological Analyses of Turbot, Scophthalmus maximus
title_sort teleost thymus in health and disease: new insights from transcriptomic and histopathological analyses of turbot, scophthalmus maximus
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7465915/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32823553
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology9080221
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