ORIGINAL PAPER
Diurnal and seasonal changes in IL-6 and IL-18 gene expression in blood leukocytes of male chickens with experimental peritonitis: the impact of lighting conditions and melatonin
More details
Hide details
1
University of Warsaw, Faculty of Biology, Department of Animal Physiology, Miecznikowa 1, 02-096, Warsaw, Poland
2
Department of Zoology, School of Life Sciences, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, 495 009 Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India
3
Dr. Seema Rai was a Visiting Scientist at the University of Warsaw, Poland, under the INSA-PAS Bilateral Exchange 2012 programme.
Publication date: 2013-06-17
Corresponding author
E. Turkowska
University of Warsaw, Faculty of Biology, Department of Animal Physiology, Miecznikowa 1, 02-096, Warsaw, Poland
J. Anim. Feed Sci. 2013;22(2):149-157
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to examine the involvement of melatonin
in the photoperiod-related development of inflammation in chickens.
Newly hatched birds obtained in summer and winter were kept in a light : dark
(LD) cycle (corresponding to the season of hatch) or in continuous light (LL).
Half of the chickens held under LL conditions were given melatonin during the
subjective night. Peritonitis was evoked on the 12th day of life by thioglycollate
(TG) injection at the beginning or towards the end of the subjective day and the
effect was measured 4 h later, i.e. during the day or at night. The development
of inflammation was evaluated by the number of peritoneal leukocytes (PTLs)
inflowing to the peritoneal cavity and by the level of mRNAs encoding proinflammatory
cytokines in the blood leukocytes. Day/night differences in PTL
number were seen only in the summer, regardless of the experimental conditions.
In chickens kept under LL conditions and given melatonin, TG injection
caused an increase in interleukin-6 (IL-6) mRNA level in blood leukocytes in
summer and a decrease in winter. Neither experimental conditions nor circadian
time affected the interleukin-18 (IL-18) mRNA level in summer, whereas
in winter abundance of this transcript exhibited the daily variations and the
influence of the treatment. The obtained results suggest the existence of clockcontrolled
diurnal and seasonal variability of the chicken inflammatory reaction,
which is influenced in different ways by circulating melatonin.
CITATIONS (11):