Inheritance of Acquired Behaviour Adaptations and Brain Gene Expression in Chickens

Background: Environmental challenges may affect both the exposed individuals and their offspring. We investigated possible adaptive aspects of such cross-generation transmissions, and hypothesized that chronic unpredictable food access would cause chickens to show a more conservative feeding strategy and to be more dominant, and that these adaptations would be transmitted to the offspring. Methodology/Principal Findings: Parents were raised in an unpredictable (UL) or in predictable diurnal light rhythm (PL, 12:12 h light:dark). In a foraging test, UL birds pecked more at freely available, rather than at hidden and more attractive food, compared to birds from the PL group. Female offspring of UL birds, raised in predictable light conditions without parental contact, showed a similar foraging behavior, differing from offspring of PL birds. Furthermore, adult offspring of UL birds performed more food pecks in a dominance test, showed a higher preference for high energy food, survived better, and were heavier than offspring of PL parents. Using cDNA microarrays, we found that the differential brain gene expression caused by the challenge was mirrored in the offspring. In particular, several immunoglobulin genes seemed to be affected similarly in both UL parents and their offspring. Estradiol levels were significantly higher in egg yolk from UL birds, suggesting one possible mechanism for these effects. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings suggest that unpredictable food access caused seemingly adaptive responses in feeding behavior, which may have been transmitted to the offspring by means of epigenetic mechanisms, including regulation of immune genes. This may have prepared the offspring for coping with an unpredictable environment. Citation: Nätt D, Lindqvist N, Stranneheim H, Lundeberg J, Torjesen PA, et al. (2009) Inheritance of Acquired Behaviour Adaptations and Brain Gene Expression in Chickens. PLoS ONE 4(7): e6405. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006405 Editor: Tom Pizzari, University of Oxford, United Kingdom Received: March 26, 2009; Accepted: June 30, 2009; Published: July 28, 2009 Copyright: © 2009 Nätt et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This project was funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR; www.vr.se; grant nrs 50280101 and 50280102) and the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas; www.formas.se; grant no 221-2005-270). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the mauscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.  Original Publication:Daniel Nätt, Niclas Lindqvist, Henrik Stranneheim, Joakim Lundeberg, Peter A. Torjesen and Per Jensen, Inheritance of Acquired Behaviour Adaptions and Brain Gene Expression in Chickens, 2009, PLoS ONE, (4), 7, e6405.http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0006405Copyright: Author

Prospect of vasoactive intestinal peptide therapy for COPD/PAH and asthma: a review

There is mounting evidence that pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) share important pathological features, including inflammation, smooth muscle contraction and remodeling. No existing drug provides the combined potential advantages of reducing vascular- and bronchial-constriction, and anti-inflammation. Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is widely expressed throughout the cardiopulmonary system and exerts a variety of biological actions, including potent vascular and airway dilatory actions, potent anti-inflammatory actions, improving blood circulation to the heart and lung, and modulation of airway secretions. VIP has emerged as a promising drug candidate for the treatment of cardiopulmonary disorders such as PAH, asthma, and COPD. Clinical application of VIP has been limited in the past for a number of reasons, including its short plasma half-life and difficulty in administration routes. The development of long-acting VIP analogues, in combination with appropriate drug delivery systems, may provide clinically useful agents for the treatment of PAH, asthma, and COPD. This article reviews the physiological significance of VIP in cardiopulmonary system and the therapeutic potential of VIP-based agents in the treatment of pulmonary diseases