Abstract
PGE2 plays an important role in a broad spectrum of physiological and pathological processes mediated through a membrane-bound G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) called EP receptor. In mammals, four subtypes of EP receptor (EP 1-4) are identified and each of them functions through different signal transduction pathways. Orthologous EP receptors have also been identified in other non-mammalian species, such as chicken and zebrafish. EP4 is the only identified PGE2 receptor to date in Atlantic salmon but its tissue distribution and function have not been studied in any detail. In this study, we first sequenced EP4 receptor in different tissues and found that the presence of the 3nt deletion in the 5' untranslated region was accompanied by silent mutation at nt 668. While attempting to amplify the same sequence in TO cells (an Atlantic salmon macrophage-like cell line), we failed to obtain the full-length product. Further investigation revealed different isoform of EP4 receptor in TO cells and we subsequently documented its presence in different Atlantic salmon tissues. These two isoforms of EP4 receptor share high homology in their first half of sequence but differ in the second half part with several deletion segments though the final length of coding sequence is the same for two isoforms. We further studied the immunomodulation effect of PGE2 in TO cells and found that PGE2 inhibited the induction of CXCL-10, CCL-4, IL-8 and IL-1β genes expression in a time dependent manner and without cAMP upregulation.