Exercise induced upregulation of glutamate-cysteine ligase catalytic subunit and glutamate-cysteine ligase modifier subunit gene expression in Thoroughbred horses

This study was performed to reveal the molecular structure and expression patterns of horse glutamate-cysteine ligase catalytic subunit ( ) and glutamate-cysteine ligase modifier subunit ( ) genes whose products form glutamate cysteine ligase, which were identified as differentially expressed genes in the previous study. We performed bioinformatics analyses, and gene expression assay with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) for horse and genes in muscle and blood leukocytes of Thoroughbred horses. Expression of showed the same pattern in both blood and muscle tissues after exercise. Expression of increased in the muscle and blood of Thoroughbreds, suggesting a tissue-specific regulatory mechanism for the expression of . In addition, expression of the gene increased after exercise in both the blood and muscle of Thoroughbreds. We established the expression patterns of and in the skeletal muscle and blood of Thoroughbred horses in response to exercise. Further study is now warranted to uncover the functional importance of these genes in exercise and recovery in racehorses.