Porcine cytokines, chemokines and growth factors: 2019 Update

Authors: Dawson, Harry; SANG, YONGMING - Tennessee State University; Lunney, Joan

Submitted to: Research in Veterinary Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/15/2020
Publication Date: 5/4/2020
Citation: Dawson, H.D., Sang, Y., Lunney, J.K. 2020. Porcine cytokines, chemokines and growth factors: 2019 Update. Research in Veterinary Science. 131:266-300. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rvsc.2020.04.022.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rvsc.2020.04.022

Interpretive Summary: A thorough understanding of porcine immunity is essential for a safe and secure food supply, to prevent and treat infectious diseases, and develop effective vaccines and therapeutics. Here we have assembled a comprehensive resource for porcine immunologists and members of human biomedical community, providing documentation of known pig cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors. Through extensive analysis of the porcine genome and transcriptome we have verified expressed genes and pseudogenes as well as genes missing in the pig genome. Furthermore, we have listed expressed cloned proteins, antibodies reactive with each gene product and noted their reactivity to identify protein expression or assay bioactivity. Despite the progress to date, much more work needs to be done. A fully annotated genome build is an essential basic need. Review of our tables verifies that there are many cytokines, chemokines and growth factors for which needed reagents are missing. Overall, there has been major progress in understanding pig immunity and development using current tools, however, there are still numerous opportunities to improve the swine immune toolkit.

Technical Abstract: Pigs are a major food source worldwide as well as major biomedical models for human physiology and therapeutics. A thorough understanding of porcine immunity is essential to prevent and treat infectious diseases, and develop effective vaccines and therapeutics. The use of pigs as biomedical models is dependent on the growing molecular and immune toolbox. This paper summarizes current knowledge of swine cytokines, chemokines and growth factors, identifying 288 pig proteins, characterizing knowledge of their gene structures and families. It identifies areas in the current swine genome build that need to be clarified. A broad-based literature and vendor search was conducted to identify defined sets of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies reacting with porcine cytokines, chemokines, growth factors along with availability of cloned recombinant proteins and assays for their quantitation. This process identified numerous reagents that are reportedly reactive with 171 pig cytokines, chemokines, growth factors: 145 have at least one commercial Ab reagent, 65 a cloned recombinant peptide, and 87 with quantitative assays. This affirms the great need to develop and characterize additional reagents. There are panels of reagents for numerous high priority targets that have been essential reagents for characterizing porcine immunity, disease and vaccine responses, and factors regulating development of innate immune responses, polarized macrophages and lymphoid cells including T regulatory cells. Yet there are many areas requiring investment of efforts to more effectively explore the pig immune system. The development of more reagents to understand the complex of cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors will clearly advance these initiatives.