Molecular characterization of the porcine TIM-3 gene

TIM-3 is a member of the TIM (T-cell immunoglobulin domain and mucin domain) family, which plays an important role in TH1 responses and autoimmune diseases. In this study, we cloned and characterized the porcine TIM-3 gene. Real-time PCR showed little expression of porcine TIM-3 in muscle and stomach, low expression in kidney, brain, stomach and muscle, moderate expression in liver, small intestine and lymph, and high expression in spleen and lung. Transient transfection indicated that porcine TIM-3 fusion protein was found to localize on the cell membranes or cytoplasm. Association analysis indicated that the SNP AccI in exon2 was significantly associated (P < 0.05) with red blood cell count mean corpuscular haemoglobin, packed cell volume, Lymphocyte percentage and Lymphocyte modulus. In conclusion, our results provide some information for conducting further studies on the functions of porcine TIM-3 gene in type I diabetes and suggest that SNP AccI in exon2 may be utilized as a marker for molecular-assisted selection in animal breeding.