Adverse Effects of Bacterial Lps on Expression Levels of Inflammatory Genes During Chicken Fetal Development

Background and aim: lipopolysaccharides (lps) are the main component of the outer membranes of gram-negative bacteria and considered as their active endotoxins. lps plays an important role in the pathogenesis of bacterial infections. the inflammatory response to lps plays an important role in sepsis shock and increase the mortality. lps is easily recognized by the host cells and activate the immune responses within the host body. the innate immune system uses signal transduction pathways to defend against microbial agents. in this study, we investigated the adverse effects of bacterial lps on the expression of genes involved in inflammation during embryo formation in the chick embryo as an animal model.methods: fertilized chicken eggs were obtained from recognized poultry sites. eggs were cultured in a commercial egg hatcher. eggs were injected with either lps or saline (10 per group). at the last week heart tissues were dissected and used for gene expression analysis. rna extraction and cdna were performed and subsequently, the transcript levels for inflammatory genes of trif and nfkb were examined using quantitative real time pcr. finally statistical analysis was performed to investigate the different levels of genes expressions.results: the results revealed that, lps has caused a significant increase in the transcripts level of genes involved in inflammation such as nfkb and trif and causes inflammation in cardiomyocyte cells.conclusion: exposure to gram negative bacteria during early development of fetus and pregnancy could potentially harm fetal development and cause severe heart defects. further experiments should be performed to elucidate the negative influences of lps on vascular system during fetal development.