Investigation of Immune Function in Naval Marine Mammals
Abstract
Marine mammals are used and maintained by the US Navy for military operations and research and development. Health maintenance is critical for optimal performance. However, very little is known about the immune system of marine mammals, especially the total aquatic cetaceans (dolphins, whales, and porpoises). This is due in part to obtaining access to animals and tissue samples as well as the lack of cetacean-specific reagents to carry out investigations of the immune system. To this end, we have cloned the gene for whale CD4, a cell surface protein present on T helper lymphocytes and important for the immune response. Whale CD4 shares 64% and 51% identity with the human and mouse protein. It contains unique amino acid substitutions in the highly conserved cytoplasmic domain, contains 7 potential N-linked glycosylation sites, and lacks the cysteine pair in the V2 domain. Bacterial and baculovirus expression systems were used to produce whale CD4 for subsequent injection into mice and/or rabbits for antibody production. Polyclonal antibodies have been used in Western blot analysis and hybridoma supernatants are currently being screened by flow cytometry. The whale-specific CD4 reagents we have generated will be used in health monitoring of Navy dolphins.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 21, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA375357
Entities
People
- Tracy Romano
Organizations
- Texas A&M University