Preparation of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α polyclonal antibody: Its application in fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) play a key role in the regulation of metabolic homeostasis, inflammation, cellular growth, and differentiation. To further explore the potential role of PPARα in the energy homeostasis of fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome (FLHS), we reported the prokaryotic expression and purification of chicken PPARα subunit protein, and successfully prepared a polyclonal antibody against PPARα recombinant protein. The 987 bp PPARα subunit genes were cloned into the pEASY-T3 clone vector. Then the plasmid PCR products encoding 329 amino acids were ligated to pEASY-Blunt E2 vector and transformed into BL21 to induce expression. The recombinant PPARα subunit protein, containing His-tag, was purified by affinity column chromatography using Ni-NTA affinity column. Rabbit antiserum was generated by using the concentration of recombinant PPARα subunit protein as the antigen. The results of western blotting showed that the antiserum can specifically recognize chicken endogenous PPARα protein. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence showed that the PPARα mainly existed in the nucleus of hepatocytes, renal epithelial cells and hypothalamic endocrine nerve cells. More importantly, western blotting and real-time quantitative PCR indicated that FLHS significantly decreased the expression of PPARα.