Altered structural and transporter-related gene expression patterns in the placenta play a role in fetal demise during Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus infection

Table 1 Summary of morphometrics and PRRSV viral load by fetal resilience groups

Group	Classification	N	Sex (male, %)	Placental viral load	Serum viral load	Thymus viral load	Fetal weight (g)	Crown rump length (cm)	Brain/ Liver ratio
CTRL	NA	14	50%	ND^A	0 (0)^A	ND^A	822.64 (33.76)^AB	27.31 (0.85)^A	1.25 (0.05)^AB
VIA_LVF	A combination of resilient and tolerant	15	47%	3.91 (0.46)^B	1.50 (0.27)^B	0 (0.00)^B	610.77 (39.89)^B	25.13 (0.56)^A	1.56 (0.10)^A
VIA_HVF	Tolerant	21	38%	7.00 (0.24)^C	7.12 (0.19)^C	5.23 (0.20)^C	808.54 (58.23)^A	27.62 (0.73)^A	1.36 (0.09)^AB
MECm_LVF	Susceptible	14	71%	4.58 (0.64)^B	1.56 (0.27)^B	0 (0.00)^B	769.46 (63.97)^AB	27.45 (0.86)^A	1.25 (0.11)^AB
MECm_HVF	Highly susceptible	14	64%	7.79 (0.29)^C	7.33 (0.47)^C	5.13 (0.20)^C	754.26 (48.40)^AB	26.88 (0.62)^A	1.20 (0.07)^AB
MECs_HVF	Extremely susceptible	13	62%	7.29 (0.18)^C	8.05 (0.24)^C	5.57 (0.28)^C	759.22 (35.06)^AB	26.14 (0.57)^A	1.02 (0.16)^B

Fetal phenotypes for groups based on PRRSV viral load as determined by quantitative PCR on fetal placenta, serum and thymus, in the form of group average in log10 copies/µL. Numbers for phenotypic measurements are displayed as the mean and standard error in parentheses. Further subdivision of fetuses was made based on preservation status at the time of sample collection with only fetuses classified as either viable (VIA), meconium stained mild (MECm), and meconium stained severe (MECs) used in the present work. Group control (CTRL) was mock infected, viable and low virus fetus (VIA_LVF), viable and high virus fetus (VIA_HVF), meconium mild and low virus fetus (MECm_LVF), meconium mild and high virus fetus (MECm_HVF), and meconium severe and high virus fetus (MECs_HVF). Classifications NA (not applicable as not challenged). The fetal sex is reported as percent male for the given category. Different letters within column indicate significant (P < 0.05) differences between fetal groups for the given phenotype

ISSN: 1471-2164