Ochratoxin A-Triggered Chicken Heterophil Extracellular Traps Release through Reactive Oxygen Species Production Dependent on Activation of NADPH Oxidase, ERK, and p38 MAPK Signaling Pathways.

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin which could cause strong immunosuppressive toxicological effects in animals and humans. Heterophil extracellular traps (HETs) as a novel defense of chicken heterophils play an important role against pathogen infection. It has been reported that OTA can weaken the phagocytosis function of neutrophils. However, whether or not OTA shows immunosuppressive effects on HET release remains unclear. In the present study, we aim to first investigate the effects of OTA on HET release and then try to clarify the mechanisms in this process. OTA-induced HET structures were observed and analyzed by fluorescence confocal microscopy. The quantitative determination of OTA-induced HETs was measured by PicoGreen and a fluorescence microplate. The results clearly showed that OTA obviously induced the release of HET-like structures in heterophils, and these extracellular networks were composed by chromatin decorated with histones and neutrophil elastase. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was also increased in the process of OTA-induced HET formation. Furthermore, the inhibitors of NADPH oxidase, ERK [Formula: see text], and p38 MAPK signaling pathways significantly decreased OTA-induced HET formation. The abovementioned results suggest that OTA-induced HET formation is related to ROS production dependent on the activation of NADPH oxidase, ERK [Formula: see text], and p38 MAPK signaling pathways. Taken together, this study first shows that OTA possesses the ability to trigger HET formation, which provides our understanding of the host that continuously suffered OTA exposure leading to the hyporeactivity of the immune system against infection.