PUBLICATION
Effects of thyroid hormone on the development of immune system in zebrafish
- Authors
- Lam, S.H., Sin, Y.M., Gong, Z., and Lam, T.J.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-050607-13
- Date
- 2005
- Source
- General and comparative endocrinology 142(3): 325-335 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Gong, Zhiyuan, Lam, Siew Hong
- Keywords
- Thyroxine; Methimazole; Thymus development; Immune-related gene expression levels
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Antithyroid Agents/pharmacology*
- Homeodomain Proteins/biosynthesis
- Homeodomain Proteins/genetics
- Homeodomain Proteins/immunology
- In Situ Hybridization
- Methimazole/pharmacology*
- RNA, Messenger/biosynthesis
- RNA, Messenger/genetics
- Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
- Thymus Gland/drug effects
- Thymus Gland/immunology*
- Thyroxine/pharmacology*
- Zebrafish/embryology
- Zebrafish/immunology*
- PubMed
- 15935159 Full text @ Gen. Comp. Endocrinol.
Citation
Lam, S.H., Sin, Y.M., Gong, Z., and Lam, T.J. (2005) Effects of thyroid hormone on the development of immune system in zebrafish. General and comparative endocrinology. 142(3):325-335.
Abstract
Effects of thyroxine (T4) and methimazole (MMI) on the development of the zebrafish immune system were investigated using continuous immersion treatment experiments. The effects of the treatments on thymus development were determined using computer-aided thymus morphometric analyses on in situ hybridization serial sections of the thymus while the effects on immune-related gene expression levels were monitored using quantitative real-time PCR. The findings indicate that thymus development and thymopoiesis, as indicated by thymus size, thymus Rag-1-positive region, and TCRAC expression level, were affected by T4 and MMI-treatments. With the exception of Ikaros, MMI-treated fish has lower immune-related gene expression levels, although it is not certain whether the effect resulted indirectly from the concomitant growth-retardation and/or directly from an effect on lymphopoiesis itself. The findings were comparable with those in mammalian system, thus providing the first evidence that the thyroid relationship with thymus development and lymphopoiesis is likely to be conserved from fish to higher vertebrates. It suggests the possibility of using zebrafish as a model system to investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in thyroid hormone-dependent disorders in the immune system.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping