Thiam Mamadou, Barreto Sánchez Astrid Lissette, Zhang Jin, Zheng Maiqing, Wen Jie, Zhao Guiping, Wang Qiao
State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Dec 8;11(12):3498. doi: 10.3390/ani11123498.
The heterophil/lymphocyte (H/L) ratio has been extensively studied to select poultry that are resistant to environmental stressors. Chickens with a low H/L ratio are superior to the chickens with a high H/L ratio in survival, immune response, and resistance to Salmonella infection. However, this disease resistance ability is likely to be associated with enhanced intestinal immunity. Therefore, to expand our understanding of these underlying resistance mechanisms, it is crucial to investigate the correlation between the H/L ratio as a blood immune indicator in live chickens and the intestinal barrier function and immunity. Jinxing yellow chickens H/L line one-day-old were divided into non-infected (NI) and infected (SI) at 7-days old. After dividing the birds into NI and SI, blood samples were taken for H/L ratios determination, and subsequently, birds from the SI group were infected with (SE). We assessed the effects of SE infection on the (i) goblet cells number from the ileum and caecum gut-segments, (ii) ileal mucosa morphology, and (iii) immune gene mRNA expressions from the ileum and caecum of NI and SI chickens at 7 and 21 days-post-infection (dpi). We found that the H/L ratio was negatively correlated with most intestinal immune indices, particularly with the goblet cells number and with IL-1β, IL-8, and IFN-γ ileal expressions. In conclusion, these results suggest that the H/L ratio is associated with the intestinal barrier and immune response for SE clearance and that the chickens with a low H/L ratio displayed enhanced intestinal immunity. This study expands the current knowledge that is related to using the H/L ratio to select and breed resistant broiler chickens.
异嗜性粒细胞/淋巴细胞（H/L）比值已被广泛研究，用于筛选对环境应激源具有抗性的家禽。H/L比值低的鸡在存活率、免疫反应和对沙门氏菌感染的抵抗力方面优于H/L比值高的鸡。然而，这种抗病能力可能与肠道免疫力增强有关。因此，为了扩大我们对这些潜在抗性机制的理解，研究活鸡血液免疫指标H/L比值与肠道屏障功能和免疫力之间的相关性至关重要。将1日龄的金星黄鸡H/L品系在7日龄时分为未感染组（NI）和感染组（SI）。将鸡分为NI组和SI组后，采集血样测定H/L比值，随后，SI组的鸡感染肠炎沙门氏菌（SE）。我们评估了SE感染对感染后7天和21天（dpi）时（i）回肠和盲肠肠段杯状细胞数量、（ii）回肠黏膜形态以及（iii）NI组和SI组鸡回肠和盲肠免疫基因mRNA表达的影响。我们发现H/L比值与大多数肠道免疫指标呈负相关，特别是与杯状细胞数量以及回肠中白细胞介素-1β、白细胞介素-8和干扰素-γ的表达呈负相关。总之，这些结果表明H/L比值与肠道屏障和清除SE的免疫反应有关，且H/L比值低的鸡表现出增强的肠道免疫力。本研究扩展了目前与利用H/L比值筛选和培育抗性肉鸡相关的知识。
