Immunohistochemical Research of the Expression of Nile Tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) NCCRP-1 in Various Tissues

It is well known that non-specific cytotoxic cell is a kind of lymphocyte in teleosts, which plays an important role in nonspecific immunity by up-regulating inflammation response and releasing cytokines. NCCs are equivalents of NK cells in mammals. NCC in fishes distributes in tissues and organs with spontaneous cytotoxicity which can kill various target cells such as allogenic or heterogeneous tumor cells, parasitic protozoan and cells induced by pathogens. NCCRP-1 is a landmark receptor on NCCs. This study sectioned brain, head kidney, liver and spleen of Nile Tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) and stained NCCRP-1 as well. The study obtained the distribution of NCCs in tissues via immunohistochemical analysis. Furthermore, we also isolated and obtained NCC of head kidney through Percoll density gradient centrifugation, stained by immunohistochemistry and tagged with FITC. The distribution was the same as the staining result in tissues. This study observed the distribution characteristics of NCC in tissues more clearly than qPCR technique, which might lay the foundation for further studies on the function of NCC.