Abstract: Thirty-six healthy and similar Xin jiang sheep were selected and divided into six groups at random. Each animal was plucked and shaved at pro-scapulae region and injected intradermally with 0.5 mL IGF-1 (10ng/mL) at the cross section of plucking, shaving and control, except sheep, as control of no injection IGF-1, sampled for 0 day. When sampled, the treatment sheep were selected one out of five groups at random, and sampled plucked tissues, shaved tissues and control, respectively for 3,6,9,12 and 50 days. The expression of encoding growth hormone receptor (GHR), insulin-like growth factor1 (IGF-1), insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-1R), KAP3.2 and KAP6-1 mRNA were measured in each sample, with relative quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using beta-actin as an internal standard. The results indicate that, 1). In normal sheepskin, the expression of GHR in injected IGF-1 decreased, no evidently changes of IGF-1 and IGF-1R, and that of KAP3.2 and KAP6-1 increased markedly.2). In plucked sheepskin, the abundance of GHR mRNA in injected IGF-1 reduced in short term (3 day), but no clearly changes in long term (above 6 day); meanwhile, compared with control, there were no changes of expression of IGF-1 and IGF-1R. The pattern of expression changes of KAP3.2 and KAP6-1 were similar, which were promoted significantly in both, but the expression of KAP3.2 prior to that of KAP6-1.3). In shaved sheepskin, the levels of GHR and IGF-1 mRNA were increased dramatically after injection IGF-1, but there has no clear fluctuation of IGF-1R; likely, the pattern of expression changes of KAP3.2 and KAP6-1 were similar, which were promoted significantly in both, but the expression of KAP3.2 prior to that of KAP6-1, too.

Key words: sheepskin, pluck and shave, IGF-1, gene expression,