The antimicrobial peptide hepcidin exerts an important role in the innate immunity against bacteria in the bony fish gilthead seabream

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are important mediators of the immune response against bacteria and hepcidin is a 20–25 residues member with known functions in iron regulation and the innate immune response. Most studies have focused on mammalian organisms but very little is known about other vertebrate groups including teleost fish. Thus, based on the sequence of an EST database, we have characterized hepcidin gene organization, gene expression, distribution and in vitro and in vivo regulation, as well as the biological activity of a synthetic peptide in the teleost fish gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata L.). First, it was found that the seabream hep gene genomic organization is formed by 3 exons and 2 introns, while the mRNA transcript is constitutively detected in most of the fish tissues but mainly in peritoneal leucocytes, head-kidney, liver and skin. Moreover, we have identified for the first time that hep is much more highly expressed in acidophilic granulocytes than in monocyte-macrophages and lymphocytes. In vitro, hep expression is up-regulated by several mitogens, pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and particulated antigens. Not surprisingly, intraperitoneal injection of bacteria or virus led to a significant gene up-regulation in the liver, head-kidney, peritoneal exudate or spleen. These observations suggest a major role for seabream hepcidin in the immune response to bacteria and viruses. Furthermore, the synthetic seabream Hep exerted an important antimicrobial activity against several bacterial strains in vitro reducing their viability. To conclude, seabream hep gene expression, up-regulation after in vitro or in vivo treatment with mitogens, PAMPs or particulated antigens and the direct in vitro biological activity against bacteria demonstrate that it is an important antimicrobial peptide and probably plays an important role in the innate immune response of fish.