MCPIP1 mediates inflammatory responses induced by lipopolysaccharide and lipoteichoic acid in bovine mammary epithelial cells

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-induced protein 1 (MCPIP1) is a kind of zinc finger RNA binding protein, which exerts immune responses in a variety of cell types. However, the role of MCPIP1 in bovine mammary epithelial cells during mastitis has not been studied. In this study, we explored the functions of MCPIP1 in the inflammatory process induced by virulence factors of pathogens in bovine mammary alveolar cell-T (MAC-T) cell line. Our results showed that MCPIP1 was significantly highly expressed both in the mammary tissue of dairy cows with mastitis and in inflammatory MAC-T cells induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or lipoteichoic acid (LTA). Furthermore, we found that overexpression of MCPIP1 in MAC-T cells abated the LPS-induced increase at the gene expression levels of inflammatory mediators tumor necrosis factor-α-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and IL-8, enhanced the LPS- and LTA-induced inhibition of epithelial proliferation and promoted the LPS- and LTA-induced oxidative and DNA damage. These findings indicated that MCPIP1 has an enormous potential in regulating the inflammatory response of bovine mammary epithelial cells during infection and may provide an effective therapeutic target for bovine mastitis to reduce the damage caused by inflammatory reactions.