Comparative analysis of the acute response of zebrafish Danio rerio skin to two different bacterial infections.

Skin is an important innate immune organ in fish; however, little is known about the skin's immune response to infectious pathogens. We conducted a comparative analysis of the acute immune response of Zebrafish Danio rerio skin against gram-positive (Staphylococcus chromogenes) and gram-negative (Citrobacter freundii) bacterial infections. Gene expression profiles induced from the two different infections were identified by microarray hybridization, with many genes demonstrating an acute immune response in the skin. Differentially expressed genes were mainly involved in response to stress and stimulus, complement activation, acute-phase response, and defense and immune response. Compared with transcription patterns of skin from the two infections, a similar innate immunity (e.g., transferrin, coagulation factor, complements, and lectins) was observed but with different acute-phase genes (e.g., ceruloplasmin, alpha-1-microglobulin, vitellogenin, and heat shock protein). These results suggest that the skin of fish plays an important role in the innate immune responses to bacterial infection.