Real-time quantitative PCR analysis of jejunal and ileal mucosa from postnatal growth retardation and healthy pigs

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative mRNA expression related to hormone, antioxidant capacity and immune responses in jejunal and ileal mucosa of healthy and postnatal growth retardation pigs. At 42 d of age, after overnight fasting, six postnatal growth retardation pigs and six healthy pigs were pair-matched by litter were selected for sampling. Samples of the jejunal and ileal mucosa were scraped and immediately snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −80°C for RNA extraction. We used Roche LightCycler ® 480 Instrument PCR assay panel to quantitate gene expression of hormone, antioxidant capacity and immune responses relevant genes from jejunal and ileal mucosa. qPCR gene expression profiling. Jejunal and ileal mucosa from 12 donors were used as indicated in the summary. Healthy pig was regareded as control group. Equal amount total RNA from each donor was extracted prior to gene expression analysis. All samples were tested in triplicate. β-actin was used as a housekeeping gene to normalize target gene transcript levels