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. 2018 Jul 1:20:15.
doi: 10.1186/s12575-018-0080-y. eCollection 2018.

Icariin: a Potential Compound for the Recovery of Tibial Dyschondroplasia Affected Chicken Via Up-Regulating BMP-2 Expression

Mujahid Iqbal  1 , Hui Zhang  1 , Khalid Mehmood  1   2 , Aoyun Li  1 , Xiong Jiang  1 , Yaping Wang  1 , Jialu Zhang  1 , Muhammad Kashif Iqbal  1 , Mujeeb Ur Rehman  1 , Wangyuan Yao  1 , Shijin Yang  1 , Jiakui Li  1   3
Affiliations

Icariin: a Potential Compound for the Recovery of Tibial Dyschondroplasia Affected Chicken Via Up-Regulating BMP-2 Expression

Mujahid Iqbal et al. Biol Proced Online. .

Abstract

Background: Tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) is a skeletal disease of fast growing chicken and other avian species. It is characterized by an avascular and non-mineralized growth plate, which leads to a deformed tibial bone and lameness. Unfortunately, this disease is not only responsible for causing huge economic losses but also raises animal welfare concerns. Icariin is a flavonoid, which is isolated from Epimedium pubescens herb, and it has been used to cure different diseases including bone fractures and osteoporosis.

Results: We designed this experiment to use icariin for the treatment of TD affect chickens; for this purpose, a total of 180 chicks were equally divided into three groups: control, TD and icariin. All the three groups were offered ad libitum same normal standard diet with an addition of thiram (50 mg/kg) from 3rd day to 7th day in TD and icariin group in order to induce TD in chickens. After the induction of TD, the chickens in icariin groups were fed standard diet with an addition of icariin at the rate of 10 mg/kg in drinking water to check the therapeutic effect of this flavonoid on TD. Our results showed that the icariin helped in restoring the TD lesion into a normal structure with significantly (P < 0.05) up-regulating the bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) expression in the tibial growth plates (GP).

Conclusions: Icariin increased the vascular area in the growth plate and decreased the average TD score. In conclusion, this study shows that icariin is a potential compound for the recovery of TD affected chickens via up-regulating the BMP-2 expression without posing a threat of ingestion of toxic veterinary drug residues to human beings upon the consumption of treated chickens.

Keywords: BMP-2; Chicken bone diseases; Gene expression; Icariin; Tibial dyschondroplasia.

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Conflict of interest statement

All the experiments related to animal trials were approved and maintained to meet the ethics guidelines of Ethics Committee of Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU), Wuhan, P.R.China. Besides this all-possible care of chickens was taken to ensure their maximum welfare.The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A visual difference between the normal and TD affected tibial bone of chicken
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The morphological changes of growth plates in the proximal end of tibia (Longitudinal section and H & E staining) on day 18. Average TD score graph on day 18 (Upper graph). Surface plot of trabecular bone was generated and analyzed by Image-Pro Plus. Vascular area on day 18 (Lower graph) showing the percentage of blood vessel in different groups. *P < 0.05
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining of growth plate (PZ = Prehypertrophic zone, HZ = Hypertrophic zone, BV = Blood vessels) and hypertrophic zone (Large arrows = cell death) of tibia and Immunohistochemical localization of BMP-2 in control (a) TD (b) and icariin (c) group. Graph (d) shows the BMP-2 relative expression in all the three groups on day 18. *P < 0.05
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Real-time quantitative PCR analysis and protein levels of BMP-2 were analyzed in growth plate on day 7, 10, 14 and 18. a The mRNA levels of BMP-2 was detected by RT-qPCR; b The protein levels of BMP-2 was detected by Western blotting. Western blot bands were quantified by ImageJ®. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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