An ex vivo model of the bovine mammary gland to study the pathogenesis of bacterial infections.

TL;DRAbstract

Mastitis represents the most important disease of dairy cattle. Stabilized or primary epithelial cell lines have been extensively used to study the molecular mechanisms of the immune response in the udder. Both models are considered reliable, but are constituted by a single cell population, i.e. epithelial cells, and changes in cell morphology and metabolism may occur, as a result of subculture, or even genetic instability. The aim of this study was to evaluate the immune response of an ex vivo model of the mammary gland, where the three-dimensional structure is maintained, assuming that the results were more comparable to the in vivo response. Ex vivo 2 mm3 -sections of a heifer udder were cultured under standardized conditions and treated for 3, 6, and 18 h with either E. coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or with S. aureus lipoteichoic acid (LTA). These molecules are constituent of the cell walls of Gram-negative or -positive bacteria, respectively and are applied as an inflammatory stim

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