Expression profiling of immune genes in classical swine fever vaccinated indigenous and crossbred piglets.

Classical swine fever is a highly contagious disease of pigs which courses from life-threatening to asymptomatic, depending on the virulence of the virus strain and the immune-competence of the host. The present study was undertaken to investigate the expression of immunologically important genes, viz. IFNα, IFNβ, SLA, SLA-2, SLA-DR, Ii, SLA-DM, CSK and JUN and to ascertain genetic group differences on the basis of humoral immune response. Blood samples were collected from 5 indigenous and 6 crossbred piglets at pre-vaccination and after 28^th day of classical swine fever (CSF) vaccination. On 28^th day, the competitive Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (cELISA) revealed poor humoral immune response (E2 antibodies) in indigenous piglets (84.80%) as compared to crossbred piglets (98.33%) in response to CSF vaccination. The expression level of genes was analyzed in three ways, viz. indigenous 28^th day post-vaccination (28dpv) versus pre-vaccination, crossbred 28^th day post-vaccination versus pre-vaccination and crossbred 28^th day post-vaccination versus indigenous 28^th day post-vaccination. The study showed that IFNα, IFNβ, SLA, SLA-2, Ii, SLA-DM, CSK and JUN were significantly upregulated in crossbred piglets than indigenous piglets at 28^th day post-vaccination. But the SLA-DR was significantly downregulated in CSF vaccinated crossbred over indigenous piglets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]