Acetylferulic paeonol ester: A new feed additive reduces lipid accumulation in the liver of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) by modulating lipid and glucose metabolism

Abstract

A 53-day feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary acetylferulic paeonol ester (APE) levels on the growth performance, body composition, serum biochemical indicators and lipid and glucose metabolism of of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus. The results showed that 100 and 200 mg kg−1 APE significantly increased the weight gain (WG), while 200–3200 mg kg−1 APE significantly decreased the crude lipid content of the liver. The supplementation of APE affected the serum biochemistry parameters associated with lipid and glucose metabolism. The liver transcriptome analysis revealed that the genes (such as hadhb, acads, acadl, acaa2, cpt1) related to fatty acid oxidation and degradation were significantly up-regulated, whereas the genes related to fatty acid biosynthesis (such as acaca, fasn, elovl5, acsl3a, scd, fads2) were significantly down-regulated by 200 mg kg−1 APE. PPAR (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor) and AMPK (Adenosine 5′-monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase) signaling pathways were significantly enriched at 200 mg kg−1 APE for differentially expressed genes (DEGs). The qPCR results showed an excellent agreement on those of RNA-seq for both up- and down-regulated genes (a total of seventeen genes selected for validation). Furthermore, 200 mg kg−1 APE influenced hepatic glucose and lipid metabolism of tilapia at the enzymatic level and the mRNA level (genes included acads, acaa2, acadl, cpt1ab, ecil, fabp1b.l, hadhb, pcxb,cyp24, tktb, fads2, rgn, scd). Thus, APE reduced lipid accumulation in the liver of tilapia by modulating lipid and glucose metabolism.