Corticosteroids are frequently used in livestock production, and their use is permitted by the European Union for therapeutic purposes only. However, small doses of corticosteroids are often administered in meat-producing animals to improve zootechnical performance. Prednisolone is one of the most commonly used corticosteroids with a growth-promoting purpose in animal husbandry. This study proposes to identify a gene whose expression is significantly regulated by prednisolone in visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissues. The analysis was conducted on Friesian cattle treated with prednisolone (30 mg day-1). The reference gene expression stability and optimal number for gene expression normalization were calculated. Family with sequence similarity 107 member A (FAM107A) and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 are the prednisolone target genes identified in adipose tissue. FAM107A was downregulated by ∼2.9-fold by prednisolone in subcutaneous adipose tissue. This result suggests that FAM107A could be a possible indirect biomarker of prednisolone treatment in cattle and encourages a deeper investigation in this direction.
Keywords: FAM107A; adipose tissue; cattle; gene expression; prednisolone.