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Aquaculture is the fastest growing animal production sector in the world and plays an important role in global efforts towards eliminating malnutrition and brings significant health benefits by nutritional well-being. Despite its increasing growth, the aquaculture industry still faces some problems, particularly diseases, which can affect its sustainability. Also, the heavy use of antibiotics may results in food and environmental pollutions and development of antibiotic resistant pathogens.
Ġmmünostimülans can increase resistance to infectious diseases, not by promoting specific immune responses, but by enhancing nonspecific defense mechanisms. Therefore, many substances from different sources (bacterial, chemical agents, animal or plant extracts, etc) have been studied as prospective immünostimülans for fish, and some have been reported to give a significant degree of protection against several diseases commonly found in farmed fish. Recent years, researchers have considered the potential of marine microorganisms as an alternative source for isolation of new metabolites with different chemical structures and pharmaceutical properties. Marine fungi from sea sponges have been also recognized as an important resource for effective bioactive compounds.
In this study, immune-modulating effect of selected fungal metabolites on the rainbow trout innate immune system was analyzed by looking at the gene expression profiles of TNF-α and IL-1β. To do this we preformed Real Time PCR using cDNA that was converted from RNA isolated from blood. Q-PCR allows us to measure double stranded cDNA quantitatively after each PCR cycle. At the end of the study, we found that when rainbow trouts were injected with extracts of P. antrovenetum in the concentration of 40 mg/kg, the expression of TNF-α and IL-1β increased 36 fold and 11 fold, respectively.