TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fritze, Marcus
A1  - Costantini, David
A1  - Fickel, Jörns
A1  - Wehner, Dana
A1  - Czirjak, Gsbor A.
A1  - Voigt, Christian Claus
T1  - Immune response of hibernating European bats to a fungal challenge
JF  - Biology open
N2  - Immunological responses of hibernating mammals are suppressed at low body temperatures, a possible explanation for the devastating effect of the white-nose syndrome on hibernating North American bats. However, European bats seem to cope well with the fungal causative agent of the disease. To better understand the immune response of hibernating bats, especially against fungal pathogens, we challenged European greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis) by inoculating the fungal antigen zymosan. We monitored torpor patterns, immune gene expressions, different aspects of the acute phase response and plasma oxidative status markers, and compared them with sham-injected control animals at 30 min, 48 h and 96 h after inoculation. Torpor patterns, body temperatures, body masses, white blood cell counts, expression of immune genes, reactive oxygen metabolites and non-enzymatic antioxidant capacity did not differ between groups during the experiment. However, zymosan injected bats had significantly higher levels of haptoglobin than the control animals. Our results indicate that hibernating greater mouse-eared bats mount an inflammatory response to a fungal challenge, with only mild to negligible consequences for the energy budget of hibernation. Our study gives a first hint that hibernating European bats may have evolved a hibernation-adjusted immune response in order to balance the trade-off between competent pathogen elimination and a prudent energy-saving regime.
KW  - Fungal challenge
KW  - Torpor
KW  - Body temperature
KW  - Zymosan
KW  - Acute phase response
KW  - Oxidative stress
KW  - Myotis myotis
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.046078
SN  - 2046-6390
VL  - 8
IS  - 10
PB  - Company biologists ltd
CY  - Cambridge
ER  -