We studied the in vitro effects of the exposure of explants from EGCs rich tissues to antigen preparations and to the recombinant cytokine TNF2. The antigen preparations consisted of bacterial culture supernatants or of bacterins (bacterial cells) obtained from the bacterial pathogens Aeromonas salmonicida and Vibrio anguillarum. The studies have comprised a quantitative analysis of the changes in the number of EGCs in tissue sections of the explants collected at different times in culture after the exposure to the antigen preparations and to TNF2.
These studies allowed us to show that:
- The exposure to the antigen preparations produced an increase in the EGC number in the tissues, and their degranulation, which was more evident in the intestine and gills.
- The exposure to the recombinant TNF2, either alone or combined with antigen preparations, caused miscellaneous results on the EGC numbers, depending of the tissue and of the antigen formulations. At this moment, it is apparent that the TNF2 suppress the activity in the lymphoid organs, while increasing the responses in the intestine and gill tissues.
Such results demonstrated that the antigen preparations have mitogenic properties for the EGCs, or elicit maturation of such cells from immature non-granulated precursors, which are resident in the tissues. The studies also indicate that the trout EGCs contain antimicrobial peptides.