Thermal imprinting during embryogenesis modifies skin repair in juvenile European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

Fish skin is a multifunctional tissue that develops during embryogenesis, a developmental stage highly suscep-tible to epigenetic marks. In this study, the impact of egg incubation temperature on the regeneration of a cutaneous wound caused by scale removal in juvenile European sea bass was evaluated. Sea bass eggs were incubated at 11, 13.5 and 16 degrees C until hatching and then were reared at a common temperature until 9 months when the skin was damaged and sampled at 0, 1 and 3 days after scale removal and compared to the intact skin from the other flank. Skin damage elicited an immediate significant (p < 0.001) up-regulation of pcna in fish from eggs incubated at higher temperatures. In fish from eggs incubated at 11 C there was a significant (p < 0.001) up-regulation of krt2 compared to fish from higher thermal backgrounds 1 day after skin damage. Damaged epidermis was regenerated after 3 days in all fish irrespective of the thermal background, but in fish from eggs incubated at 11 C the epidermis was significantly (p < 0.01) thinner compared to other groups, had less goblet cells and less melanomacrophages. The thickness of the dermis increased during regeneration of wounded skin irrespective of the thermal background and by 3 days was significantly (p < 0.01) thicker than the dermis from the intact flank. The expression of genes for ECM remodelling (mmp9, colX alpha, col1 alpha 1, sparc, and angptl2b) and innate immunity (lyg1, lalba, sod1, csf-1r and ppar gamma) changed during regeneration but were not affected by egg thermal regime. Overall, the results indicate that thermal imprinting of eggs modifies the damage-repair response in juvenile sea bass skin.

CCMAR/BI/0008/2016; ALG-01-0145-FEDER-022121

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion