{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,3]],"date-time":"2026-03-03T06:00:59Z","timestamp":1772517659168,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,3]],"date-time":"2026-03-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1772496000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100009207","name":"Agrifutures Australia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100009207","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Immunol."],"abstract":"\n Introduction<\/jats:title>\n \n Enhancing immune responsiveness against pathogens is crucial for maintaining health. In broiler chickens, the\n in ovo<\/jats:italic>\n delivery of carvacrol, a phenolic compound found in oregano and thyme, has shown promising immunomodulatory activity. This study investigated the hypothesis that the\n in ovo<\/jats:italic>\n delivery of carvacrol would regulate the immune response against\n Escherichia coli<\/jats:italic>\n lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in broiler chickens.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods<\/jats:title>\n \n In ovo<\/jats:italic>\n carvacrol (injected at embryonic day 17.5) and\/or\n E. coli<\/jats:italic>\n LPS challenge (repeated intraperitoneal injections at post-hatching d7 and d14) were tested in a 2 \u00d7 2 factorial arrangement, resulting in four groups: 1)\n in ovo<\/jats:italic>\n saline without challenge (saline), 2)\n in ovo<\/jats:italic>\n saline with LPS challenge, 3)\n in ovo<\/jats:italic>\n carvacrol without challenge, and 4)\n in ovo<\/jats:italic>\n carvacrol with LPS challenge. Performance parameters were collected, and relative organ weights were measured at d14. Splenic samples were collected 6 h after the second challenge (d14) and used for transcriptomic analyses.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results and Discussion<\/jats:title>\n \n The LPS challenge resulted in lower chicken weight gain and higher relative spleen weight. The\n in ovo<\/jats:italic>\n delivery of carvacrol had no impact on these measures. The transcriptomic comparisons for the effects of LPS challenge identified 786 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between groups 2 and 1 (without\n in ovo<\/jats:italic>\n carvacrol) and 1,832 DEGs between groups 4 and 3 (with\n in ovo<\/jats:italic>\n carvacrol) [false discovery rate (FDR)&lt; 0.05, \u22120.5 &gt; logFC &gt; 0.5], primarily enriching inflammatory pathways (p&lt; 0.01). The transcriptomic comparisons for the effects of\n in ovo<\/jats:italic>\n carvacrol identified 89 DEGs between groups 3 and 1 and 720 DEGs between 4 and 2 (p&lt; 0.05, \u22120.5 &gt; logFC &gt; 0.5). Functional analyses (4 vs. 2) showed that the\n in ovo<\/jats:italic>\n delivery of carvacrol enriched pathways that can be related to T-cell activation at 6 h after LPS challenge, mainly influenced by the upregulation of DEGs encoding for cytokines and chemokines (\n p<\/jats:italic>\n &lt; 0.01). Overall, these findings suggest that the\n in ovo<\/jats:italic>\n delivery of carvacrol may modulate immune responses toward an\n E.\u00a0coli<\/jats:italic>\n LPS challenge, specifically by upregulating the gene expression of cytokines, chemokines, and their receptors, persisting until at least 14 days post-hatching.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fimmu.2026.1761404","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,3]],"date-time":"2026-03-03T05:23:40Z","timestamp":1772515420000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["In ovo carvacrol enriched inflammatory and T-cell transcriptional responses to Escherichia coli LPS in broiler chickens"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Mila M. 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