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Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) infection in piglets can cause thymus injury and immunosuppression. However, the mechanisms of thymus injury remain unknown. This study was aimed at investigating the specific manifestations of thymus injury through the construction of a PRRSV-infected piglet model and histopathological observation. In this study, fourteen 40-day-old PRRSV-free piglets were randomly divided into two groups, eleven of which were intramuscularly injected with 3\u00a0mL of PRRSV WUH3 virus suspension (10<jats:sup>6<\/jats:sup> PFU \/mL) in the infection group, and three of which were sham-inoculated with 3\u00a0mL of RPMI-1640 medium in the control group. Clinical necropsy and samples collection were performed on day 8 after artificial infection. With the Illumina platform, the transcriptomes of piglet thymus tissues from infected and control piglets were sequenced to explore the relationships of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and signaling pathways with thymus injury. The immune organs of PRRSV-infected piglets were severely damaged. The histopathological findings in the thymus indicated that PRRSV infection was associated with a large decrease in lymphocytes, cell necrosis and cell apoptosis; an increase in blood vessels and macrophages; thymic corpuscle hyperplasia; and interstitial widening of the thymic lobules. The transcriptomic analysis results revealed that the Gene Ontology functions of DEGs were enriched primarily in biological processes such as angiogenesis, regulation of angiogenesis and positive regulation of cell migration. Moreover, greater numbers of blood vessels and macrophages were observed in the thymus in PRRSV-infected than control piglets. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed that the DEGs were significantly enriched in the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, IL-17 signaling pathway and TNF signaling pathway. The expression of TLR8, IRF5, the chemokines CCL2, CCL3L1 and CCL5; and their receptors CCR1, CCR2 and CCR5 was significantly up-regulated in PRRSV infection, thus suggesting that these cytokines were associated with the pathological processes of thymus injury.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s11259-023-10133-x","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,2]],"date-time":"2023-06-02T09:42:27Z","timestamp":1685698947000},"page":"1949-1962","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Pathological observation and transcriptomic analysis of thymus injury in PRRSV-infected piglets"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"47","author":[{"given":"Naying","family":"Su","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhengdan","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xi","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiuxiu","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xinxin","family":"Jin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Helong","family":"Feng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cunlin","family":"Zhan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xueying","family":"Hu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Changqin","family":"Gu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wanpo","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Guofu","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"10133_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Albers GJ, Iwasaki J, McErlean P, Ogger PP, Ghai P, Khoyratty TE, Udalova IA, Lloyd CM, Byrne AJ (2021) IRF5 regulates airway macrophage metabolic responses. 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Animal care and use protocols were reviewed and approved by the experimental animal monitoring committee of Huazhong Agricultural University (Permit Number: HZAUSW-2023-0017).","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent to participate"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":4,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"The research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.","order":5,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}]}}