Differential expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors alpha and gamma gene in various chicken tissues

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are the members of superfamily of nuclear hormone receptors. A great number of studies in rodent and human have shown that PPARs were involved in the lipids metabolism. The goal of the current study was to investigate the expression pattern of PPAR genes in various tissues of chicken. The tissue samples (heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, stomach, intestine, brain, breast muscle and adipose) were collected from six Arber Acres broilers (8 weeks old, male and female birds are half and half). Semi-quantitative RT-PCR and Northern blot were used to characterize the expression of PPAR-α and PPAR-γ genes in the above tissues. By semi-quantitative RT-PCR, the results showed the expression level of PPAR-α gene was higher in brain, lung, kidney, heart and intestine, medium in stomach, liver and adipose than in spleen, and it did not express in breast muscle. The expression level of PPAR-γ gene was higher in adipose, medium in brain and kidney than in spleen, heart, lung, stomach and intestine, but it did not express in liver and breast muscle. Northern blot results showed that PPAR-α gene expressed in heart, liver, kidney and stomach, and the intensity of hybridization signal was the stronger in liver and kidney than in other tissues, however, PPAR-γ gene only expressed in adipose and kidney tissues. The results of this study showed the profile of PPAR gene expression in the chicken was similar to that in rodent, human and pig. However the expression profile of chicken also have its own specific trait, i.e. compared with mammals, PPAR-α gene can not be detected in skeletal muscle and PPAR-γ gene can be stronger expressed in kidney tissues. This work will provide some basic data for the PPAR genes expression and lipids metabolism of birds.