Proteomic analysis of host responses to Marek's disease virus infection in spleens of genetically resistant and susceptible chickens

Resistance to Marek's disease (MD) in chickens is genetically regulated and there are lines of chickens with differential susceptibility or resistance to this disease. The present study was designed to study comparative changes in the spleen proteomes of MD-susceptible B19 and MD-resistant B21 chickens in response to MDV infection. Spleen proteomes were examined at 4, 7, 14 and 21 days post-infection (d.p.i.) using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and subsequently the protein spots were identified by one-dimensional liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (1D LC ESI MS/MS). On average, there were 520 ± 27 distinct protein spots on each gel and 1.6 ± 0.7% of the spots differed quantitatively in their expression (p ≤ 0.05 and fold change ≥2) between infected B19 and B21 chickens. There was one spot at 4 d.p.i. and three spots each at the rest of the time points, which had a qualitative difference in expression. Most of the differentially expressed proteins at 4 and 7 d.p.i. displayed increased expression in B21 chickens; conversely the differentially expressed proteins at 14 and 21 d.p.i. showed an increase in expression in B19 chickens. The differentially expressed proteins identified in the present study included antioxidants, molecular chaperones, proteins involved in the formation of cytoskeleton, protein degradation and antigen presentation, signal transduction, protein translation and elongation, RNA processing and cell proliferation. These findings shed light on some of the underlying processes of genetic resistance or susceptibility to MD.