Transcriptomes from German shepherd dogs reveal differences in immune activity between atopic dermatitis affected and control skin
Canine atopic dermatitis (CAD) is an inflammatory and pruritic allergic skin disease with both genetic and environmental risk factors described. We performed mRNA sequencing of non lesional axillary skin biopsies from nine German shepherd dogs. Obtained RNA sequences were mapped to the dog genome (CanFam3.1) and a high quality skin transcriptome was generated with 23,510 expressed gene transcripts. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were defined by comparing three controls to five treated CAD cases. Using a leave one out analysis, we identified seven DEGs: five known to encode proteins with functions related to an activated immune system CD209 CLEC4G LOC102156842 lipopolysaccharide binding protein like) LOC480601 regakine 1 like) LOC479668 haptoglobin like) one OBP encoding an odorant binding protein potentially connected to rhinitis, and the last LOC607095 encoding a novel long non coding RNA. Furthermore, high mRNA expression of inflammatory genes was found in axillary skin from an untreated mild CAD case compared with healthy skin. In conclusion, we define genes with different expression patterns in CAD case skin helping us understand post treatment atopic skin. Further studies in larger sample sets are warranted to confirm and to transfer these results into clinical practice.
Immunogenetics