Department of Disease Control, Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
Int J Immunogenet. 2012 Apr;39(2):170-82. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-313X.2011.01062.x. Epub 2011 Nov 25.
The African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) has been implicated as the reservoir of several bovine infectious agents. However, there is insufficient information on the protective immune responses in the African buffalo, particularly in infected animals. In this study, we analysed Th1 cytokines IL-2 and IFN-γ, and Th2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-10. The cloned cDNA of IL-2, IL-4, IL-10 and IFN-γ contained an open reading frame of 468, 501, 408 and 540 nucleotides, encoding polypeptides of 155, 166, 135 and 179 amino acids, respectively. Nucleotide sequence homology of IL-2, IFN-γ and IL-4 was more than 98% between the African buffalo and cattle, which resulted in identical polypeptides. Meanwhile, IL-10 gene of African buffalo and cattle had 95% homology in nucleotide sequence, corresponding to thirteen amino acid residues substitution. Cysteine residues and potential glycosylation sites were conserved within the family Bovinae. Phylogenetic analyses including cytokines of the African buffalo placed them within a cluster comprised mainly of species belonging to the order Artiodactyla, including cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goat, pig and artiodactyl wildlife. A deeper understanding of the structure of these cytokines will shed light on their protective role in the disease-resistant African buffalo in comparison with other closely related species.
非洲野牛（Syncerus caffer）被认为是几种牛传染性病原体的宿主。然而，关于非洲野牛的保护性免疫反应，特别是在感染动物中的反应，信息还不够充分。在这项研究中，我们分析了 Th1 细胞因子 IL-2 和 IFN-γ，以及 Th2 细胞因子 IL-4 和 IL-10。IL-2、IL-4、IL-10 和 IFN-γ 的克隆 cDNA 分别包含 468、501、408 和 540 个核苷酸的开放阅读框，编码 155、166、135 和 179 个氨基酸的多肽。非洲野牛和牛的 IL-2、IFN-γ 和 IL-4 的核苷酸序列同源性均高于 98%，导致多肽相同。同时，非洲野牛和牛的 IL-10 基因在核苷酸序列上有 95%的同源性，对应 13 个氨基酸残基的取代。牛科内的胱氨酸残基和潜在的糖基化位点保守。包括非洲野牛细胞因子在内的系统发育分析将它们置于一个聚类中，主要由偶蹄目动物的物种组成，包括牛、水牛、绵羊、山羊、猪和偶蹄目野生动物。对这些细胞因子结构的更深入了解将有助于了解它们在与其他密切相关物种相比时在抗病性非洲野牛中的保护作用。
