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PHYSIOLOGY, ENDOCRINOLOGY, AND REPRODUCTION |




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* State Key Laboratory for Agrobiotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China;
College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China; and
College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
1 Corresponding author: ninglbau{at}public3.bta.net.cn
| ABSTRACT |
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Key Words: hypoxia Tibetan chicken hemoglobin oxygen equilibrium curve carbonic anhydrase II
| INTRODUCTION |
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D chain of hemoglobin that might enhance the oxygen affinity. But the explanation of high oxygen affinity for hypoxia adaptability may be just one reason; the other important one is to ensure efficient unloading of oxygen to deeper tissues, which is based on a flexible mechanism regulating the conformation of hemoglobin (Hiebl et al., 1987).
Generally, the interaction between hemoglobin and oxygen could be regulated by some small molecules, such as 2, 3-diphosphoglycerate, protons (H+), NO, adenosine triphosphate, and modified hemoglobin (Kinoshita et al., 2007). Of these factors, the H+ concentration in red blood cells (RBC) influenced by changing metabolic state is the most important factor that could easily change the shift of the dissociation curve and regulate oxygen affinity (Bellingham et al., 1971). At present, the reports on oxygen affinity of hemoglobin in poultries native to high altitudes are not available, especially in embryonic stages. In the following study, we compared the oxygen affinity of hemoglobin in Tibetan chicken embryos with that of the lowland chicken breed by the method of oxygen equilibrium curve (OEC; Kister and Wajcman., 2003) and found different shapes and positions of OEC in hypoxia, which might reflect an aspect of different adaptability. Previously, the work finished by Wei et al. (2007), describing the characteristics of higher venous carbon dioxide partial pressure and lower venous blood pH of Tibetan chicken embryos in hypoxia and suggesting some potential mechanism facilitating dissociation of oxygen from hemoglobin, has led us to pay attention to the carbonic anhydrase II (CAII) expression. Carbonic anhydrase II is a widespread zinc metalloenzyme from the carbonic anhydrase family that catalyzes CO2 + H+OH–
HCO3– + H+ and plays a functional role in pH balance and dissipation of carbon dioxide in RBC (Geers and Gros, 2000). Therefore, the expression of RBC CAII mRNA of Tibetan chicken embryos was compared with those of lowland controls to understand how Tibetan chicken embryos could ensure oxygen supply and develop successfully in hypoxic condition.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Fertile eggs of the Tibetan chicken and lowland chicken were collected from the Experimental Chicken Farm of the China Agriculture University. The fertile eggs were randomly divided into 2 groups: one group served as a control and was incubated in a normal condition (21% O2) with 37.8°C and 60% RH for 21 d, and the other group was incubated by supplying with a gas mixture containing 13% O2 and 87% N2, simulating the oxygen partial pressure in the area of Lhasa approximate to an altitude of 4,000 m.
Measurement of OEC
The OEC was measured by using a Hemox analyzer (TCS Medical Products, Southampton, PA) in a standard condition (pH 7.4, 41°C). Blood samples were taken by cardiac puncture from 17-, 19-, and 21-d-old chick embryos with heparinized syringes and transferred to heparinized tubes kept at 4°C before use. All of the samples were assayed less than 8 h after cardiac puncture. After collection, the blood was centrifuged for 5 min at 350 x g at 4°C to remove the plasma and buffy coat. The packed erythrocytes were washed 3 times in cold 50 mM bis-Tris isotonic buffer, pH 7.4. An aliquot of the packed cells (60 µL) was suspended in 4 mL of the working buffer solution in the Hemox cuvet and was then prepared for measurement. The blood samples of Tibetan chicken embryos (n = 5) and lowland chicken embryos (n = 5) were measured at the same time in both hypoxic and normoxic incubation. The partial pressure of O2 at half-saturation of hemoglobin (P50) and the Hill coefficient, reflecting the cooperative properties of hemoglobin (n50), were obtained as results of OEC measurement for affinity analysis.
Hemoglobin Concentration and Embryo Relative Weight
Hemoglobin concentration (g/100 mL) was measured following the method of cyanmethemoglobin (Tazawa et al., 1988). The eggs were weighed first, then eggshells were opened at the air cell and the embryos stripped of yolk were weighed. The egg weight was used as normalization for the embryo weight.
RNA Isolation and Analysis
Total RNA was extracted from erythroid cells using Trizol reagent (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) and then purified with DNase I (RNase-free). The mRNA concentration was quantified for further analysis. The primers for the probe were designed using oligo 6.0 version according to the CAII gene (GenBank accession no. NW_001471651) sequence, and 18S rRNA was employed as a housekeeping gene for normalization. About 20 µg of total RNA was loaded onto 1.5% agarose gel for Northern blot following the standard protocol and then hybridized with [
-32P] deoxycytidine triphosphate-labeled cDNA probes. The membranes were exposed to PhosphorImaging screens (Molecular Dynamics, Sunnyvale, CA) for 48 h and then signals were quantitated with ImageQuant software (Amersham Pharmacia Biosciences, Piscataway, NJ).
Statistical Analysis
Data analysis was performed using the GLM procedure of SAS v9.0 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). Differences between means were considered to be significant at the P < 0.05 level.
| RESULTS |
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Tibetan chicken is well known for its stronger adaptability against hypoxia (Zhang et al., 2005, 2006; Bao et al., 2007). In this study, the result of OEC measurement showed that the curves were all induced to shift leftward in both breeds at d 17 and 21 but were induced to shift rightward surprisingly at d 19 in hypoxia, indicating no constantly enhanced affinity in embryonic stages (Figure 1). When the affinity was compared between breeds, it was surprising that higher affinity was even observed in lowland chicken embryos at d 17, and the mean P50 value was 43.29 ± 1.04 mmHg, far lower than 52.21 ± 1.68 mmHg in Tibetan chicken embryos (P < 0.05), which paralleled the value (49.42 ± 2.07 mmHg) in normoxia. At d 19 and 21, higher oxygen affinity of Tibetan chicken was shown in hypoxic condition but seemed not to be more excellent (only statistically different at d 21). At d 19, although lower mean P50 value in Tibetan chicken embryos was observed, there was no significance level (P > 0.05) in the mean P50 values between Tibetan chicken embryos (52.42 ± 0.82 mmHg) and lowland chicken embryos (55.84 ± 2.56 mmHg). At d 21, the mean P50 value in Tibetan chicken embryos (50.11 ± 1.26 mmHg) was significantly lower than that of lowland chicken embryos (54.68 ± 1.31 mmHg) (P < 0.05). In normal incubation, no significant difference of affinity between breeds was observed (P > 0.05). Although oxygen affinity of hemoglobin in Tibetan chicken embryos was not found to be more prominent in hypoxia, it seemed that the hemoglobin showed better tetramer cooperativity. In hypoxia, the mean n50 values of hemoglobin in both breeds were observed to be changed obviously. Compared with that of the lowland breed, the mean n50 value of hemoglobin in Tibetan chicken embryos was induced to be significantly higher (P < 0.05) at d 17 and 19 and still to be kept at a higher level but not at a significant level (P > 0.05) at d 21. In normal incubation, no difference of n50 values of both breeds was found (P > 0.05; Table 1).
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No significant difference in hemoglobin concentration in normal incubation was observed between Tibetan chicken embryos and lowland chicken embryos at d 17, 19, and 21. In hypoxic incubation, hemoglobin concentration was upregulated by hypoxia, and hemoglobin concentration in Tibetan chicken embryos was significantly higher than that of lowland chicken embryos at d 17 and 19 (P < 0.05; Table 2).
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In the normal condition, lowland chicken showed a higher embryo weight than that of Tibetan chicken. But when incubated in hypoxia, it was observed that the embryo weight of lowland chicken decreased more than that of Tibetan chicken, especially in the late stages from d 17 to 21, showing no significant difference in weight compared with Tibetan chicken embryos (Figure 2A). To accurately compare the growing state between the 2 breeds, egg weight was used to normalize the embryo weight. The result showed that the value of embryo:egg rate in Tibetan chicken embryo was significantly higher than that of the lowland breed in hypoxic condition (P < 0.01), but there was no difference observed in the normal condition (Figure 2B).
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To investigate the Bohr effect on hemoglobin, we analyzed CAII mRNA expression in RBC of late embryos at d 17, 19, and 21 in hypoxic and normoxic incubation (Figure 3A). Northern blot showed that CAII mRNA level could be significantly upregulated and even expressed earlier at d 13 in hypoxia. The level of CAII mRNA in Tibetan chicken in hypoxic condition was found to be significantly higher than that of lowland chicken (Figure 3B), and no different expression was found in normoxic incubation.
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| DISCUSSION |
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To investigate this hypothesis, we detected the level of CAII mRNA in RBC. Carbonic anhydrase II is a kind of zinc metalloenzyme that catalyzes the reversible reaction of carbon dioxide and water to bicarbonate and protons. In erythrocyte, CAII is responsible for improving the oxygen and carbon dioxide transport properties and regulating hemoglobin oxygen binding dependent on the Bohr effect (Baumann et al., 1986; Birchard and Black, 1986). Dragon and Baumann (2001) have previously reported that CAII mRNA transcription could be induced by hypoxia. In our study, we confirmed this by Northern blot and found a higher level of CAII mRNA in Tibetan chicken embryos, indicating that the upregulation of CAII transcription in hypoxia would enhance translation quantity. Therefore, we speculated that higher expression of CAII in Tibetan chicken embryos might play an important role in regulating cellular pH and facilitating more oxygen to dissociate from hemoglobin to tissues for metabolic consumption in hypoxic incubation. Handrich and Girard (1985) have reported that embryo weight and oxygen consumption were strongly correlated. In our study, Tibetan chicken embryos indeed showed a higher rate of relative weight in hypoxic incubation, indicating that more efficient oxygen was used for their embryo development. Therefore, we thought that the flexible regulation of hemoglobin in Tibetan chicken embryos by the Bohr effect was one aspect of hypoxia adaptability at a high altitude.
In addition, hypoxia-induced upregulation of CAII mRNA might be a potential factor associated with hypoxia adaptability. A previous study reported that CAII transcription was activated through a cyclic adenosine monophosphate-dependent signaling pathway induced by adenosine and norepinephrine (Dragon and Baumann, 2001), but hypoxia-inducible factor 1 should not be neglected because the hypoxia response element in the promoter of carbonic anhydrase IX, another carbonic anhydrase isozyme, had been confirmed (Kaluz et al., 2003). In our study, CAII induced by hypoxia in Tibetan chicken embryos was a necessary reinforcement for facilitating dissociation of oxygen to tissues and might also be one of the important factors in the hypoxia adaptability mechanism. Of course, further studies are still required.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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Received for publication June 29, 2009. Accepted for publication September 6, 2009.
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