The Tissue Distribution Of Piglets Galectins And The Expression Diversity In Gastrointestinal Tract Of Pre-and Post-weaning

Gastrointestinal tract is the largest immune and endocrine organs in vivo. The morphology of intestinal integrity is the foundation of all normal functioning. In early weaning piglet,due to physiological, nutritional, and sudden changes in the environment, coupled with inadequate development of digestive tract, easily lead to Early-Weaned Stress, showing decreased feed intake, growth retardation, diarrhea, one of the main reasons is the piglet immunity poor result of gastrointestinal disease particularly sensitive. Recent investigations have revealed that gastrointestinal galectins are secreted by the epithelia may recognize glycoconjugates and crosslink them into a macromolecular mass. This galectin-ligand complex may play a role in protecting the epithelial surface against luminal contents such as gastric acid, digestive enzymes, and foreign organisms. Therefore, in the process of weaning piglets, galectins may play a certain role in digestive physiology, the gastrointestinal tract and immune changes in the environment .At present, there are little research for the galectins of piglets, especially the effect of weaning on galectins gene expression level.For further study of the role of animal lectins in piglets during the weaning stress .In this paper, the gene expression of galectin-2,galectin-8,galectin-9 ,galectin-13,galectin-related and galectin-related inter-fiber-like were amplified by RT-PCR in various piglet tissues. The fold change of galectin-2 , galectin-8,galectin-9, galectin-13,galectin-related and galectin-related inter-fiber-like mRNA was detemined by Realtime PCR compared between pre- and post-weaning piglet gastrointestinal tract.The results showed that:1.Galectin-2 , galectin-8 , galectin-9 , galectin-13 , galectin-related ,galectin-related inter-fiber-like were all expressed in the weaned piglet gastrointestinal tract, especially galectin-2 was intensely expressed.2.The galectin-2,galectin-8,galectin-9, galectin-13,galectin-related,galectin-related inter-fiber-like mRNA expression had significant change in gastrointestinal tract after weaning. The galectin-2 ,galectin-13 and GRIFIN mRNA expression was significantly raised in gastrointestinal tract after weaning .However,,compared to pre-weaning,galectin-8,galectin-9and galectin- related mRNA expression was decreased significantly.