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Heme oxygenase 1 plays a crucial role in swamp eel response to oxidative stress induced by cadmium exposure or Aeromonas hydrophila infection

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Abstract

Oxidative stress contributes a lot to initiation and progression of pathological conditions. Heme oxygenase 1 (HO1), a cytoprotective enzyme, is usually upregulated to alleviate oxidative stress in vivo. The function of teleost HO1 in the response to oxidative stress induced by heavy metal exposure and in pathogenic bacterial infection remains uncertain. In the present study, both complementary DNA and genomic sequence of a HO1-like gene cloned from the liver of swamp eel (Monopterus albus) are reported. Sequence analysis showed that the putative amino acid sequence contained a conserved heme oxygenase signature and displayed higher similarity to HO1 genes of other teleosts. Expression profile of swamp eel HO1 was investigated in healthy tissues and in tissues following stimulation with pathogenic bacteria (Aeromonas hydrophila) or cadmium chloride (CdCl2) exposure. Results demonstrated that HO1 messenger RNA (mRNA) was highly expressed in the liver and relatively less in other tissues. Bacterial infection with A. hydrophila significantly changed HO1 mRNA expression in the liver, spleen, and kidney, and the mRNA expression of HO1 and Nrf2 in the liver was elevated after the fish were exposed to CdCl2. Subsequently, the swamp eel HO1 was subcloned into a pET28a expression vector and transformed into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). Recombinant HO1 (rHO1) was successfully induced by 0.1 mmol/l IPTG and purified by Ni-NTA His Bind Resin purification system. To determine whether the rHO1 could confer stress tolerance in vitro, the viability of control and HO1-expressing E. coli under CdCl2 stress was compared by spot assay. The rHO1 protein significantly increased survival rates of the bacterial hosts. To evaluate whether intraperitoneal injection with rHO1 protected the liver of swamp eel against A. hydrophila-induced oxidative stress, mRNA expression of HO1, Nrf2, hepcidin, and IL-1β as well as the oxidative stress-related parameters (ROS and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC)) in the liver were examined. The results showed that exogenous rHO1 could significantly upgrade the mRNA expression of HO1 and hepcidin, coupled with increased ROS and T-AOC levels. However, Nrf2 and IL-1β expression levels were significantly downregulated and upregulated, respectively. These results suggested that HO1 should not only play a protective role in oxidative stress response and its adverse effects deserved further investigation.

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Funding

This work was supported partially by the Yangtze Youth Talent Fund (2015cqr18) and Open Fund (KF2015016) of the Engineering Research Center of Ecology and Agricultural Use of Wetland, Ministry of Education, Yangtze University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Sciences, Yangtze University, Jingmi Road 266, Jingzhou, 434025, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China

    Yuwei Zang, Shuting Zheng, Long Yang, Xiping Wei, Dan Kong, Wenxiu Sun & Wei Li

  2. Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, People’s Republic of China

    Fang Tang

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  1. Yuwei Zang
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  2. Shuting Zheng
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  3. Fang Tang
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  4. Long Yang
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Contributions

Wei Li: Conceived and designed the experiments; wrote the paper.

Yuwei Zang: Performed the experiments and wrote the paper.

Shuting Zheng, Long Yang, Dan Kong, and Xiping Wei: Performed part of experiments and contributed reagents and materials.

Fang Tang and Wenxiu Sun: Data analysis and interpreted the data.

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Correspondence to Wei Li.

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Zang, Y., Zheng, S., Tang, F. et al. Heme oxygenase 1 plays a crucial role in swamp eel response to oxidative stress induced by cadmium exposure or Aeromonas hydrophila infection. Fish Physiol Biochem 46, 1947–1963 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-020-00846-0

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