Bovine mastitis, caused by pathogen infection in mammary tissue, incurs significant economic losses. Bovine mammary epithelial cells (bMECs) act as both lactation organs and primary defense against pathogens. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a virulence factor of Escherichia coli (E. coli), activates innate immune responses in bMECs. In this study, we initially established bMEC purification through immunofluorescence analysis; subsequently employed RNA-seq to identify 691 differentially expressed mRNAs (DE-mRNAs) during LPS stimulation at various time points; and finally demonstrated that these DE-mRNAs were enriched in multiple gene ontology terms and signaling pathways related to immune responses and inflammatory processes, including the NF-κB, Toll-like receptor, TNF, and mTOR pathways. These findings suggest that the identified DE-mRNAs may mediate the inflammatory response induced by LPS in bMECs.
Keywords: Bovine mammary epithelial cells; Mastitis; RNA-seq; mRNA.
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