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Zheng, Jiamao

Animal Science

2005

PhD

Bovine mastitis is one of the most costly infectious diseases in animal agriculture worldwide, indicating that current treatment strategies are not sufficient to control this disease. Therefore, there is a clear imperative for research aimed at developing novel approaches. The overall goal of the present research was to better understand the molecular mechanisms of how the genes involved in the innate immune system are regulated in the mammary gland in response to infection. The information obtained will aid in design of targeted therapeutic interventions that allow animals to stay healthy and productive.
In order to better understand the acute host response to mastitis, the transcriptional profiling of LPS-induced mastitis was characterized using a mouse model. A global view of gene expression changes in the context of biological pathways provides a first snap shot of changes in the complex mammary physiological and cellular processes in response to LPS at the molecular level. In addition to induction of innate immune response genes, other biological processes such as cell proliferation, apoptosis, potassium transport, carbohydrate and fatty acid metabolism were also modulated. Furthermore, the importance of mammary epithelial cells in the acute phase response to infection was recognized and model of TLR4-mediated signaling pathway during LPS-induced mastitis was proposed.
The research presented here significantly contributes to our understanding of mastitis pathogenesis by the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of gene regulation during mastitis. In addition, data from this work will aid in designing the novel strategies to control this disease.