Validation of exercise-response genes in skeletal muscle cells of Thoroughbred racing horses

• Published in: Animal bioscience Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. 134 - 142
• Main Authors: Kim, Doh Hoon, Lee, Hyo Gun, Sp, Nipin, Kang, Dong Young, Jang, Kyoung-Jin, Lee, Hak Kyo, Cho, Byung-Wook, Yang, Young Mok
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korea (South) Asian - Australasian Association of Animal Production Societies 01.01.2021; Asian-Australasian Association of Animal Production Societies; 아세아·태평양축산학회
• Subjects: Exercise; exercise stress; gene expression; Genetic aspects; Muscle cells; Muscles; Physiological aspects; skeletal muscle cells; thoroughbred; Thoroughbred horse; 축산학; South Korea; Exercise Stress; Gene Expression; Skeletal Muscle Cells; Thoroughbred
• ISSN: 2765-0189; 2765-0235; 2765-0235
• DOI: 10.5713/ajas.18.0749

To understand the athletic characteristics of Thoroughbreds, high-throughput analysis has been conducted using horse muscle tissue. However, an in vitro system has been lacking for studying and validating genes from in silico data. The aim of this study is to validate genes from differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of our previous RNA-sequencing data in vitro. Also, we investigated the effects of exercise-induced stress including heat, oxidative, hypoxic and cortisol stress on horse skeletal muscle derived cells with the top six upregulated genes of DEGs. Enriched pathway analysis was conducted using the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) tool with upregulated genes in horse skeletal muscle tissue after exercise. Among the candidates, the top six genes were analysed through geneMANIA to investigate gene networks. Muscle cells derived from neonatal horse skeletal tissue were maintained and subjected to exercise-related stressors. Transcriptional changes in the top six genes followed by stressors were investigated using qRT-PCR. The inflammation response pathway was the most commonly upregulated pathway after horse exercise. Under non-cytotoxic conditions of exercise-related stressors, the transcriptional response of the top six genes was different among types of stress. Oxidative stress yielded the most similar expression pattern to DEGs. Our results indicate that transcriptional change after horse exercise in skeletal muscle tissue strongly relates to stress response. qRT-PCR results showed that stressors contribute differently to the transcriptional regulation. These results would be valuable information to understand horse exercise in the stress aspect.