Nutritional regulation of skeletal muscle energy metabolism, lipid accumulation and meat quality in pigs

Abstract

The quality of pork determines consumers' purchase intention, which directly affects the economic value of pork. Minimizing the proportion of inferior pork and producing high quality pork are the ultimate goals of the pig industry. Muscle energy metabolism, serving as a regulative hub in organism energy expenditure and storage as a fat deposit, is compatible with myofiber type composition, affecting meat color, intramuscular fat content, tenderness, pH values and drip loss. Increasing data illustrate that dietary nutrients and bioactive ingredients affect muscle energy metabolism, white adipose browning and fat distribution, and myofiber type composition in humans, and rodents. Recently, some studies have shown that modulating muscle energy metabolism and lipid accumulation through nutritional approaches could effectively improve meat quality. This article reviews the progress and development in this field, and specifically discusses the impacts of dietary supply of amino acids, lipids, and gut microbiota as well as maternal nutrition on skeletal muscle energy metabolism, lipid accumulation and meat quality of pigs, so as to provide comprehensive overview with respect to effective avenues for improving meat quality.

Keywords: Amino acids; Fatty acid profile; Gut microbiota; Maternal nutrition; Meat quality; Skeletal muscle.

Fig. 1

Production of meat and pork in the 1978–2021 in the world and in China. (A) Meat production in the world and in China, and proportion of the world's meat produced in China. (B) Pork production in the world and in China, and proportion of the world's pork produced in China. Source: https://ourworldindata.org/.

Fig. 2

A schematic diagram regarding role of gut microbiota in improving meat quality. FMT = faecal microbiota transplantation; IL-1β = interleukin-1β; IL-10 = interleukin 10; IMF = intramuscular fat; Keap1 = Kelch-like ECH-associated protein l; LPS = lipopolysaccharide; MDA = malonaldehyde; NFκB = nuclear factor kappa B; Nrf2 = nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2; SCFA = short chain fatty acid; SOD = superoxide dismutase; TLR4 = toll like receptor 4.