A Comparative Transcriptome Analysis of Human and Porcine Choroid Plexus Cells in Response to Serotype 2 Infection Points to a Role of Hypoxia.

() is an important opportunistic pathogen, which can cause septicemia and meningitis in pigs and humans. Previous observations in -infected pigs revealed lesions at the choroid plexus (CP). experiments with primary porcine CP epithelial cells (PCPEC) and human CP epithelial papilloma (HIBCPP) cells demonstrated that can invade and traverse the CP epithelium, and that the CP contributes to the inflammatory response cytokine expression. Here, next generation sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to compare global transcriptome profiles of PCPEC and HIBCPP cells challenged with serotype (ST) 2 infected , and of pigs infected . Identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were, amongst others, involved in inflammatory responses and hypoxia. The RNA-seq data were validated quantitative PCR of selected DEGs. Employing Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), 18, 28, and 21 enriched hallmark gene sets (GSs) were identified for infected HIBCPP cells, PCPEC, and in the CP of pigs suffering from ST2 meningitis, respectively, of which eight GSs overlapped between the three different sample sets. The majority of these GSs are involved in cellular signaling and pathways, immune response, and development, including inflammatory response and hypoxia. In contrast, suppressed GSs observed during and ST2 infections included those, which were involved in cellular proliferation and metabolic processes. This study suggests that similar cellular processes occur in infected human and porcine CP epithelial cells, especially in terms of inflammatory response.