Exploratory assessment of CD4+ T lymphocytes in brown hares (Lepus europeus) using a cross-reactive anti-rabbit CD4 antibody

Barbara C. Rütgen, Wilhelm Gerner, Christoph Beiglböck, Helmut Schaschl, Armin Saalmüller, Franz Suchentrunk, Sabine E. Essler

Publications: Contribution to journalArticlePeer Reviewed

Abstract

In lagomorphs, lymphocyte subset distributions and the importance of CD4+ T cell levels has so far only been considered in the frame of rabbit disease models. In this study, the first assessment of CD4+ T lymphocytes in peripheral blood cells in brown hares (Lepus europaeus L., 1758), a further leporid species using a cross-reactive rabbit anti-CD4 antibody in flow cytometry, is presented. In addition, the entire coding region of the hare CD4 gene (1380bp) coding for a polypeptide of 459 amino acids has been sequenced. Using generalized least squares fitting by maximum likelihood (GLS) test, significantly (p=0.0095) higher CD4+ T cell frequencies in males than in females and significantly (p=0.0001) higher frequencies for leverets (younger than 2 months of age) than for subadult and adult (older than 7 months of age) individuals were detected. No significant age influence, however, was found for subadult and adult hares. The study is particularly meant to provide a first step in establishing a toolbox for the assessment of the immune response in this leporid species.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)108-115
Number of pages8
JournalVeterinary Immunology and Immunopathology
Volume161
Issue number1-2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Sept 2014

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 106013 Genetics
  • 403016 Veterinary immunology

Keywords

  • Brown hare
  • CD4
  • Cross-reactivity
  • Flow cytometry
  • Lepus europaeus
  • T lymphocytes

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