Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.46419/vs.51.2.2

Phenotype analysis of CD3+CD16+ lymphocytes in the peripheral blood of pigs

Miroslav Andrišić orcid.org/0000-0001-9221-285X ; Croatian Veterinary Institute, Zagreb, Croatia;
Irena Žarković orcid.org/0000-0002-3263-2024 ; Croatian Veterinary Institute, Zagreb, Croatia;
Ksenija Šandor orcid.org/0000-0002-8730-5282 ; Croatian Veterinary Institute, Zagreb, Croatia;
Anja Vujnović orcid.org/0000-0002-8311-9407 ; Croatian Veterinary Institute, Zagreb, Croatia;
Eleonora Perak Junaković orcid.org/0000-0003-0630-7428 ; Croatian Veterinary Institute, Zagreb, Croatia;
Hrvoje Valpotić ; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Krešo Bendelja orcid.org/0000-0002-6017-3355 ; Center for Research and Knowledge Transfer in Biotechnology, Zagreb, Croatia
Željko Cvetić orcid.org/0000-0002-5977-4735 ; Center for Research and Knowledge Transfer in Biotechnology, Zagreb, Croatia
Frane Božić ; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Svjetlana Terzić orcid.org/0000-0002-6023-5798 ; Croatian Veterinary Institute, Zagreb, Croatia;

Abstract

The phenotype of porcine peripheral blood T cells and natural killer (NK) cells has been well-studied over the past three decades, though porcine peripheral blood lymphocytes with mixed T/NK-cell phenotype within perforin- and NKp46- positive CD3+ populations have also been identified. Despite the mixed phenotype, both populations showed in vitro NK cell-like major histocompatibility complex-unrestricted cytolysis. In this study, the peripheral blood lymphocytes of 15 crossbreed, 12-week-old pigs of both sexes, were analysed by flow cytometry for the expression of leukocyte surface antigens (cluster of differentiation, CD) that can be found on porcine T cells (CD3, TCR-γδ and CD4), NK cells (CD16) or on both cell populations (CD8α and SLA-DR). We found the presence of a minor population of CD3+CD16+ cells within peripheral blood lymphocytes (2.84%). Peripheral blood CD3+CD16+ lymphocytes consisted of all four subpopulations with respect to the expression of surface antigens CD4 and CD8α; most were CD4-CD8α+ (60.64%) and CD4-CD8α-(36.77%). While the proportion of SLA- DR+ cells within both subpopulations was similar (8.01% of CD3+CD16+CD4-CD8α+ lymphocytes and 7.41% of CD3+CD16+CD4- CD8α- lymphocytes), the proportion of TCR-γδ+ cells was noticeably higher within CD3+CD16+CD4-CD8α+ (43.48%) than CD3+CD16+CD4-CD8α- (16.55%) lymphocytes. When the expression of individual surface antigens was analysed on peripheral blood CD3+CD16+ lymphocytes, most were CD8α+ (62.44%), though some were also TCR- γδ+ (32.56%), SLA-DR+ (7.55%) or CD4+ (2.59%). Expression of CD8α on CD3+CD16+ lymphocytes was not related to co-expression of other surface antigens, though most CD3+CD16+TCR-γδ+ lymphocytes (81.04%) and most CD3+CD16+CD4+ lymphocytes (69.50%) expressed CD8α. Expression of SLA-DR was not related to the co-expression of TCR-γδ or CD8α, or to the co-expression of both antigens (TCR-γδ and CD8α) on CD3+CD16+CD4- lymphocytes. The results also showed the presence of peripheral blood lymphocytes with the combined phenotypeof T cells and NK cells in three-month old pigs. Though a functional analysis of the investigated cells was not performed in this study, future investigations should provide more insight about the functional properties of porcine peripheral blood CD3+CD16+ lymphocytes with distinct phenotypic characteristics, especially concerning antigen- specific responses and whether the results presented here are solely age-related.

Keywords

T cells; NK cells; swine; phenotype analysis

Hrčak ID:

236147

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/236147

Publication date:

25.3.2020.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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