Hepatic expression patterns in psychosocially high-stressed pigs suggest mechanisms following allostatic principles.
Physiology & Behavior. 2014-04-01; 128: 159-165
DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.02.014
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1. Physiol Behav. 2014 Apr 10;128:159-65. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.02.014. Epub
2014 Feb 15.
Hepatic expression patterns in psychosocially high-stressed pigs suggest
mechanisms following allostatic principles.
Oster M(1), Muráni E(2), Ponsuksili S(3), D’Eath RB(4), Turner SP(5), Evans G(6),
Thölking L(7), Kurt E(8), Klont R(9), Foury A(10), Mormède P(11), Wimmers K(12).
Author information:
(1)Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), Institute for Genome Biology,
Wilhelm-Stahl-Allee 2, 18196 Dummerstorf, Germany. Electronic address:
.
(2)Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), Institute for Genome Biology,
Wilhelm-Stahl-Allee 2, 18196 Dummerstorf, Germany. Electronic address:
.
(3)Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), Institute for Genome Biology,
Wilhelm-Stahl-Allee 2, 18196 Dummerstorf, Germany. Electronic address:
.
(4)Animal & Veterinary Science Research Group, SRUC, West Mains Road, Edinburgh
EH9 3JG, UK. Electronic address: .
(5)Animal & Veterinary Science Research Group, SRUC, West Mains Road, Edinburgh
EH9 3JG, UK. Electronic address: .
(6)PIC UK, 2 Kingston Business Park, Kingston Bagpuize, Oxfordshire OX13 5FE, UK.
Electronic address: .
(7)PIC Germany, PIC Deutschland GmbH, Ratsteich 31, 24837 Schleswig, Germany.
Electronic address: .
(8)Optimeter, Oyak sitesi 1.kisim 11b blok da:4, Sefakoy, Istanbul, Turkey.
Electronic address: .
(9)Vion Food Group, Boseind 10, 5281 RM Boxtel Postbus1, 5280 AA Boxtel, The
Netherlands. Electronic address: .
(10)Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, PsyNuGen, UMR 1286, INRA, 33076
Bordeaux, France. Electronic address: .
(11)Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, PsyNuGen, UMR 1286, INRA, 33076
Bordeaux, France. Electronic address: .
(12)Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), Institute for Genome
Biology, Wilhelm-Stahl-Allee 2, 18196 Dummerstorf, Germany. Electronic address:
.
Psychosocial challenges are known to introduce cellular and humoral adaptations
in various tissues and organs, including parts of the sympatho-adrenal-medullary
system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis as well as other peripheral tissue
being responsive to cortisol and catecholamines. The liver is of particular
interest given its vital roles in maintaining homeostasis and health as well as
regulating nutrient utilization and overall metabolism. We aimed to evaluate
whether and how response to psychosocial stress is reflected by physiological
molecular pathways in liver tissue. A pig mixing experiment was conducted to
induce psychosocial stress culminating in skin lesions which reflect the
involvement in aggressive behavior and fighting. At 27 weeks of age, animals
prone to psychosocially low- and high-stress were assigned to mixing groups. Skin
lesions were counted before mixing and after slaughter on the carcass. Individual
liver samples (n=12) were taken. The isolated RNA was hybridized on Affymetrix
GeneChip porcine Genome Arrays. Relative changes of mRNA abundances were
estimated via variance analyses. Molecular routes related to tRNA charging, urea
cycle, acute phase response, galactose utilization, and steroid receptor
signaling were found to be increased in psychosocially high-stressed animals,
whereas catecholamine degradation and cholesterol biosynthesis were found to be
decreased. In particular, psychosocially high-stressed animals show decreased
expression of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) which has been linked to
molecular mechanisms regulating aggressiveness and stress response. The
expression patterns of high-stressed animals revealed metabolic alterations of
key genes related to energy-mobilizing processes at the expense of energy
consuming processes. Thus, the coping following psychosocial challenges involves
transcriptional alterations in liver tissue which may be summarized with
reference to the concept of allostasis, a strategy which is critical for
survival.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.02.014
PMID: 24534173 [Indexed for MEDLINE]