Bai Hai, Wang Zhixian, Hu Rui, Kan Tongtong, Li Yan, Zhang Xiaosheng, Zhang Jinlong, Lian Ling, Han Hongbing, Lian Zhengxing
Beijing Key Laboratory of Animal Genetic Improvement, China Agricultural University, Beijing, P. R. China; School of Life Science, Shanxi Datong University, Datong, Shanxi, P. R. China.
Beijing Key Laboratory of Animal Genetic Improvement, China Agricultural University, Beijing, P. R. China.
PLoS One. 2015 Apr 13;10(4):e0121636. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121636. eCollection 2015.
Genetic modification offers alternative strategies to traditional animal breeding. However, the food safety of genetically modified (GM) animals has attracted increasing levels of concern. In this study, we produced GM sheep overexpressing TLR4, and the transgene-positive offsprings (F1) were confirmed using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Southern blot. The expression of TLR4 was 2.5-fold compared with that of the wild-type (WT) sheep samples. During the 90-day safety study, Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with three different dietary concentrations (3.75%, 7.5%, and 15% wt/wt) of GM sheep meat, WT sheep meat or a commercial diet (CD). Blood samples from the rats were collected and analyzed for hematological and biochemical parameters, and then compared with hematological and biochemical reference ranges. Despite a few significant differences among the three groups in some parameters, all other values remained within the normal reference intervals and thus were not considered to be affected by the treatment. No adverse diet-related differences in body weights or relative organ weights were observed. Furthermore, no differences were observed in the gross necropsy findings or microscopic pathology of the rats whose diets contained the GM sheep meat compared with rats whose diets contained the WT sheep meat. Therefore, the present 90-day rat feeding study suggested that the meat of GM sheep overexpressing TLR4 had no adverse effect on Sprague-Dawley rats in comparison with WT sheep meat. These results provide valuable information regarding the safety assessment of meat derived from GM animals.
基因改造为传统动物育种提供了替代策略。然而，转基因动物的食品安全已引起越来越多的关注。在本研究中，我们培育了过表达TLR4的转基因绵羊，并使用聚合酶链反应（PCR）和Southern印迹法确认了转基因阳性后代（F1）。与野生型（WT）绵羊样本相比，TLR4的表达量为其2.5倍。在为期90天的安全性研究中，将Sprague-Dawley大鼠分别喂食三种不同饮食浓度（3.75%、7.5%和15%重量/重量）的转基因绵羊肉、野生型绵羊肉或商业饲料（CD）。采集大鼠的血液样本并分析其血液学和生化参数，然后与血液学和生化参考范围进行比较。尽管三组在某些参数上存在一些显著差异，但所有其他值均保持在正常参考区间内，因此不认为受到处理的影响。未观察到与饮食相关的体重或相对器官重量的不良差异。此外，与喂食野生型绵羊肉的大鼠相比，在喂食转基因绵羊肉的大鼠的大体尸检结果或微观病理学方面未观察到差异。因此，目前为期90天的大鼠喂养研究表明，与野生型绵羊肉相比，过表达TLR4的转基因绵羊肉对Sprague-Dawley大鼠没有不良影响。这些结果为转基因动物源性肉类的安全性评估提供了有价值的信息。
