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Description:
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The replication of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV ) in macrophages not only leads to cell death , but also to the induction of a variety of cytokines that may affect immune function . Cytokine production may be responsible for the fever , anorexia , hemorrhages , lethargy or thrombocytopenia seen in the acute and chronic phases of equine infectious anemia (EIA ) . The study of the equine immune system and inflammatory responses , by measuring cytokine expression , can provide important insight into disease pathogenesis in the horse . We have extended studies of virulent and avirulent EIAV clones by examining the effects of Env proteins on cytokine expression in equine monocyte -derived macrophages (EMDM ) using EIAV17 , EIAV19 , EIAV17SU , and EIAV17TM viruses . In the current studies a set of quantitative real -time polymerase chain reaction (QPCR ) assays for the equine cytokines IL -1α , IL -1β , IL -6 , IL -8 and TNF -α were validated using QPCR primers and probes which were generated for the aforementioned equine genes . |