ARS | Publication request: Transcriptome profile and cytogenetic analysis of immortalized neuronally restricted progenitor cells derived from the porcine olfactory bulb

Submitted to: Animal Biotechnology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: June 24, 2009
Publication Date: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Biomedical and nutrition research benefits from the use of animal models and cell culture systems to extend the scope and detail of analysis relative to limitations with respect to human studies. The pig, as a model for humans, fulfills the need for a suitable alternative that accurately and precisely emulates many aspects of human structure and physiology. The pig's consequential use for medical studies has provided significant advances to the field of neurology through an understanding of the neurological dysfunctions of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disorders. In this study, we describe the development and full characterization of a pig-derived neuronal cell line that will be useful as a model for exploring neuronal cell dynamics in cell culture. This is an immortalized porcine olfactory bulb neuroblast cell line that can be used for extended evaluation because of its limitless growth stability. Molecular tools developed to explore pig immunology and nutrition during experimental studies of infectious and metabolic diseases were applied to the characterization of these cells and to verify their functional properties. Key elements involved in the regulation of neuronal signal transduction and neurogenesis were detected, and their gene expression profiles annotated from existing genomic information. This cell line represents a useful tool that can act as a complement to nutritional studies conducted in similar cell lines developed from humans and rodents. It will be of benefit to researchers interested in testing neuronal cell interactions and the consequences of nutritional changes to improve neuronal cell function.

Technical Abstract: Recently, we established and phenotypically characterized an immortalized porcine olfactory bulb neuroblast cell line, OBGF400 (Uebing-Czipura et al., 2008). To facilitate the future application of these cells in studies of neurological dysfunction and neuronal replacement therapies, a comprehensive knowledge of their genomic variability and overall gene expression capacity was pursued. Accordingly, the OBGF400 cells were subjected to karyotype and more extensive transcriptome analyses. Cytogenetic characterization of these cells revealed a genetic mosaicism of neuronal aneuploidy. A direct comparison of the OBGF400 cell transcriptome pattern, generated by utilizing the Affymetrix GeneChip® Porcine Genome Array, to that of a non-neural, porcine epithelial cell line facilitated the identification of 831 transcripts intrinsic to the neuroblasts. Subsequent functional annotation of these RNAs using the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery 2008 enabled their allocation to the corresponding gene ontology biological process term, thereby assisting in the recognition of key elements involved in the regulation of neuronal signal transduction and neurogenesis.