Effect of dietary Pinus densiflora bark extract on activity and mRNA expression of antioxidant enzyme in weaning piglets

Abstract

Various stresses by weaning and rapid growth have a great impact on the piglets growth. In this study, we studied the impact of Pinus densiflora bark extract (PBE) on oxidative stress during weaning piglets. 96 crossbreed weaning piglets [(Landrace × Large White × Yorkshire) × (Duroc × Pietrain)] with average initial body weight (BW) of 7.71 ± 0.07 kg were divided randomly into 4 treatment groups (0, 100, 200, 300mg/kg PBE, respectively), with 3 replicates per treatment and 8 piglets per replicate. The dietary PBE significantly enhanced the total antioxidant status (TAS; p < 0.001 in liver, p < 0.01 in serum and p < 0.05 in muscle) and decreased the lipid peroxidation (p < 0.01 in serum and liver, p < 0.05 in muscle), while remarkably increased activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD, p < 0.01), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px; p < 0.001 in muscle, p < 0.01 in liver and p < 0.05 in serum) and catalase (CAT; p < 0.01 in muscle and liver, p < 0.05 in serum) than those of control group in weaning piglets. PBE supplementation significantly increased the transcript levels of antioxidant enzyme genes such as SOD, GSH-Px and CAT, showed dose-dependent effect. During the experiment, the average daily gain (ADG) and feed/gain ratio (F/G) ratio were also calculated, indicating that PBE supplement had no adverse impact on growth performance. This study indicated that dietary PBE could enhance the antioxidant enzyme activity and their genes expression, suggesting the possibility of increasing the resistance to weanling stress in weaned piglets.