Air-liquid interface (Ali) systems allow the establishment of a culture environment more representative of that in vivo than other culture systems. They are useful for performing mechanistic studies of respiratory epithelial cells as drug permeation barriers and can be used to study the interactions between hosts and respiratory pathogens. However, there have been few studies concerning Ali cultures of primary swine tracheal epithelial cells (STECs) and an immortalized STEC line, and the differences between these two systems remain poorly defined. In this study, we established Ali culture systems for primary STECs and for immortalized STEC line, and we systematically compared the differentiation capacities and immunological functions of these systems for the first time. Under Ali culture conditions, immortalized STEC line and primary STECs could survive for at least forty days, formed tight junctions and differentiated into stratified cells. They both possessed complete abilities to produce mucin and inflammatory cytokines and develop cilia. However, in contrast to primary STECs, which had a heterogeneous morphology, Ali-cultured immortalized STEC line appeared to be a homogenous population. The formation of tight junctions in Ali-cultured primary STECs was superior to that in immortalized STEC line. In addition, cilia in Ali-cultured immortalized STEC line were more pronounced, but their duration of expression was shorter than in primary STECs. Ali-cultured primary STECs and immortalized STEC line systems possessing complete abilities to undergo ciliary differentiation and inflammatory cytokine production were established for the first time in this study, and several differences in morphology and the formation of tight junctions and cilia were observed between these two systems. These two systems will be important tools for drug screening studies, as well as for detailed analyses of the interactions between hosts and respiratory pathogens.

A method based on accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) coupled with gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) was developed for the quantitative analysis of spectinomycin and lincomycin in poultry egg (whole egg, albumen and yolk) samples. In this work, the samples were extracted and purified using an ASE350 instrument and solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridges, and the parameters of the ASE method were experimentally optimized. The appropriate SPE cartridges were selected, and the conditions for the derivatization reaction were optimized. After derivatization, the poultry egg (whole egg, albumen and yolk) samples were analyzed by GC-MS/MS. This study used blank poultry egg (whole egg, albumen and yolk) samples to evaluate the specificity, sensitivity, linearity, recovery and precision of the method. The linearity (5.6–2000 μg/kg for spectinomycin and 5.9–200 μg/kg for lincomycin), correlation coefficient (≥0.9991), recovery (80.0%–95.7%), precision (relative standard deviations, 1.0%–3.4%), limit of detection (2.3–4.3 μg/kg) and limit of quantification (5.6–9.5 μg/kg) of the method met the requirements for EU parameter verification. Compared with traditional liquid–liquid extraction methods, the proposed method is fast and consumes less reagents, and 24 samples can be processed at a time. Finally, the feasibility of the method was evaluated by testing real samples, and spectinomycin and lincomycin residues in poultry eggs were successfully detected.

Background: Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (M. hyopneumoniae) is the etiological agent of enzootic pneumonia, a highly infectious swine respiratory disease that distributed worldwide. The pathogenesis and virulence factors of M. hyopneumoniae are not fully clarified. As an important virulence factor of bacteria, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) oxidase (NOX) participates in host-pathogen interaction, however, the function of NOX involved in the pathogenesis of M. hyopneumoniae is not clear. Results: In this study, significant differences in NOX transcription expression levels among different strains of M. hyopneumoniae differed in virulence were identified, suggesting that NOX may be correlated with M. hyopneumoniae virulence. The nox gene of M. hyopneumoniae was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, and polyclonal antibodies against recombinant NOX (rNOX) were prepared. We confirmed the enzymatic activity of rNOX based on its capacity to oxidize NADH to NAD⁺. Flow cytometry analysis demonstrated the surface localization of NOX, and subcellular localization analysis further demonstrated that NOX exists in both the cytoplasm and cell membrane. rNOX was depicted to mediate adhesion to immortalized porcine bronchial epithelial cells (hTERT-PBECs). Pre-neutralizing M. hyopneumoniae with anti-rNOX antibody resulted in a more than 55% reduction in the adhesion rate of high- and low-virulence M. hyopneumoniae strains to hTERT-PBECs. Moreover, a significant difference appeared in the decline in CCU₅₀ titer between virulent (168) and virulence-attenuated (168L) strains. NOX not only recognized and interacted with host fibronectin but also induced cellular oxidative stress and apoptosis in hTERT-PBECs. The release of lactate dehydrogenase by NOX in hTERT-PBECs was positively correlated with the virulence of M. hyopneumoniae strains. Conclusions: NOX is considered to be a potential virulence factor of M. hyopneumoniae and may play a significant role in mediating its pathogenesis.