PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Yaks inhabit high-altitude, low-oxygen regions, where ion transport functions play a crucial role in maintaining intracellular and extracellular ionic balance and regulating pulmonary vascular tension. These functions affect pulmonary ventilation and blood flow rate, aiding tissue development and enhancing oxygen transfer efficiency, thus facilitating better adaptation to hypoxic environments. To investigate the regulatory mechanisms of ion transport-related factors on the growth and development of yak lungs, we employed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq)for sequencing the transcriptome in the lung tissues of neonatal (1-day-old), juvenile (1-year-old), and adult (4-year-old) yaks. We also performed differential gene expression and functional analyses. The results yielded 26 genes associated with ion transport, mainly enriched in the salivary and pancreatic secretion pathways. Finally, we used several methods including quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and Western blotting (WB), immunohistochemical (IHC) and immunofluorescence (IF) staining to determine the distribution of the expression of the ion transport genes FOXI1, KCNMA1, and SLC12A2 in yak lung tissues. qRT-PCR and WB results indicated that mRNA and protein relative expression levels of FOXI1 and SLC12A2 were significantly higher in neonatal yaks than in juvenile and adult yaks (all p < 0.05), whereas those of KCNMA1 were significantly higher in adult yaks than in neonatal and juvenile yaks (all p < 0.05). IHC and IF results demonstrated that FOXI1, KCNMA1, and SLC12A2 were distributed among the epithelial mucosal layers (including ciliated, goblet, and Clara cells) of the yaks\' bronchi and their branches in the lungs across different age groups of yak. Therefore, our results suggested that FOXI1, KCNMA1, and SLC12A2 may be strongly associated with the development and aging processes in yak lungs. These results provide insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the yak\'s adaptation to high-altitude environments and valuable references for further research.
摘要：
牦牛栖息在高海拔地区,低氧区,其中离子运输功能在维持细胞内和细胞外离子平衡和调节肺血管张力中起着至关重要的作用。这些功能影响肺通气和血流速度，帮助组织发育和提高氧转移效率，从而促进更好地适应低氧环境。探讨离子转运相关因子对牦牛肺生长发育的调控机制,我们采用RNA测序（RNA-seq）对新生儿（1日龄）肺组织的转录组进行测序，少年（1岁），和成年（4岁）牦牛。我们还进行了差异基因表达和功能分析。结果产生了26个与离子运输相关的基因，主要富集在唾液和胰腺分泌途径。最后,我们使用了几种方法，包括定量聚合酶链反应(qRT-PCR)，和蛋白质印迹(WB)，免疫组化(IHC)和免疫荧光(IF)染色测定离子转运基因FOXI1、KCNMA1和SLC12A2在牦牛肺组织中的表达分布。qRT-PCR和WB结果表明，新生牦牛FOXI1和SLC12A2的mRNA和蛋白相对表达水平明显高于幼年和成年牦牛（均p<0.05）。而KCNMA1在成年牦牛中的表达显著高于新生牦牛和幼年牦牛(均p<0.05)。IHC和IF结果显示FOXI1、KCNMA1和SLC12A2分布在上皮粘膜层（包括纤毛，高脚杯,和克拉拉细胞）的牦牛支气管及其在不同年龄段的肺部分支。因此,我们的结果表明FOXI1，KCNMA1和SLC12A2可能与牦牛肺的发育和衰老过程密切相关。这些结果为牦牛适应高海拔环境的分子机制提供了见解，并为进一步研究提供了有价值的参考。
