Temporal changes in mRNA expression of heat shock protein genes in mammary epithelial cells of riverine buffalo in response to heat stress in vitro

Exposure to high ambient temperature affects buffalo productivity significantly in hot climate areas. Till date, no data is available on the heat stress response of mammary epithelial cells (MECs) in buffaloes. The present work aimed to examine the long term temporal changes in mRNA expression pattern of various heat shock proteins (HSP) genes in buffalo MECs during heat stress condition. For the study, we utilized the primary mammary epithelial cells of riverine buffalo and were exposed to thermal stress condition at 42 0 C for one hour. The cells were subsequently allowed to recover at 37 0 C and harvested at different time intervals (30 min to 48 hr) along with control samples (un-stressed). All the HSP (HSP40, HSP60, HSP70, HSP90, and HSBP1) showed immediate induction in their expression after heat shock and remained upregulated at the later stages as well. Amongst these, HSP70 gene showed maximal induction in its expression while HSP40 was found to be second most abundantly expressed HSP. Our present data thus provides the strong clue about the responsiveness of buffalo MECs to heat stress suggesting its suitability as an in vitro model to understand the modulation of buffalo mammary gland expression signature in response to environmental heat load.