Comparative studies of the expression of creatine kinase isoforms under immune stress in Pelodiscus sinensis

The expression and localization of different isoforms of creatine kinase in Pelodiscus sinensis (PSCK) were studied to reveal the role of PSCK isozymes (PSCK-B, PSCK-M, PSCK-S) under bacterial infection-induced immunologic stress. The computational molecular dynamics simulations predicted that PSCK-S would mostly possess a kinase function in a structural aspect when compared to PSCK-B and PSCK-M. The assay of biochemical parameters such as total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), malondialdehyde (MDA), catalase (CAT), and the content of ATP were measured along with total PSCK activity in different tissue samples under bacterial infection. The expression detections of PSCK isozymes in vitro and in vivo were overall well-matched where PSCK isozymes were expressed differently in P. sinensis tissues. The results showed that PSCK-B mostly contributes to the spleen, followed by the liver and myocardium; PSCK-M mostly contributes to the liver, followed by the myocardium and skeletal muscle, while PSCK-S contributes to the spleen and is uniquely expressed in skeletal muscle. Our study suggests that the various alterations of PSCK isozymes in tissues of P. sinensis are prone to defense the bacterial infection and blocking energetic imbalance before severe pathogenesis turned on in P. sinensis.